Kalpasutra

Author(s): J Stevenson
Publisher: Oriental Translation Fund London

Page 18

xvi
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
to have been father to that Bharat from whom India took its name. He is also said, in the end of his life, to have abandoned the world, going about everywhere as a naked ascetic. It is so seldom that Jains and Brahmans agree, that I do not see how we can refuse them credit in this instance where they do so, the only point of difference between the two parties being, that while the Jains maintain that Rishabha followed an institute worthy of being adopted by sages in every age, the Brahmans stoutly maintain that no one is authorized to follow his example. However this may be, it is certain that even according to the traditions preserved by the Brahmans themselves, Rishabha, Kapila, Gautama, and other sages, maintained opinions, and followed practices, which vary much from the present orthodox standard, and if in these early ages there was no regular Jain or Buddhistical organization as little was there an exclusive Brahmanism. The truth seems to be, that at the period referred to there was no regular division of caste among the people, of schools among the philosophers, nor of sects among religionists. All shades of opinion