Lecture On Jainism

Author(s): Lala Banarasidas
Publisher: Anuvrat Samiti

Page 16

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I hope writers like Lethbridge and lountstuart Elphinstone shall never in future regard Jainism as coming into existence in the 6th century A. D. lt will be the great delight of the Jains if the misleading passages in the works of such writers shall be struck off, for they are creating a great misunderstanding. Lethbridge's history is taught in schools and young generations derive false notiuns regarding Jainism from that book.
Now let us see if Profs. Wilson, Lassen, Barth, Jainism is not an vfshoot Weber and others are right in speak
uf Buldhism. ing of the Jains as a branch of the Buddhists. But before so doing we should note that although they speak of Jainism as branching off from Buddhism in the carly centuries of its origin, they do not say, How? When? Under what circumstances ? What led to this branching off? What was the cause of this branching oft? Nay, some of them have the can. didness to confess that at the time when they were writing their opinions they knew very little of Jainism. For instance, Barth in his Religions of India, 1892, speaks of Jainism as "one of the least known among those which have performed an important part in the past of India," but " which is as yet known to us only in a sort of abstract way, and in regard to the historical development of which we are absolutely in the dark."
Again he candidly confesses that to answer the question “At what period did the sect attain a really