________________
Approaches to the Question of the Antiquity
of Jainism
Thomas McEvilley
The Antiquity Hypothesis
Unlike Buddha, who is traditionally regarded as more or less his contemporary, Mahavira is not said to have founded a religion, but a to have reformed one. Jain tradition speaks of twenty three teachers who preceded Mahavira in this World Cycle. The twenty first of these (that is, the third back from Mahavira) is dated by the Jains to a period which, as one author notes, "is a good 800,000 years before Pithecanthropus erectus."
In any case it seems likely on other grounds than hagiographic tradition that Jainism is a good deal older than the age of the Buddha. There are, in fact, elements in it which can be traced back to the Indus Valley culture, though perhaps by way of intermediary groups. It has even been suggested, and not implausibly in terms of the slight evidence available, that "those Jaina images of Parsvanatha (Mahavira's predecessor) that represent him with two serpents sprouting from his shoulders...point to a connection of some kind with ancient Mesopotamia."2 The question of the relationship between Sumerian culture and the Indus Valley is one of considerable dispute today. Still, the point if, for the moment, that Jainism represents an ancient current of religious theory and practices
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
