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Lord Mahavira the Jaina faith and to the two tradition through which this faith has manifested itself. We have seen the ways in which these traditions differ: one a bit more conservative, with a doctrine that rests heavily upon faith; the other tending to be more liberal, relaxed, pragmatic, and oriented toward scriptural and historical evidence. But in the remainder of this book we shall discover that on many levels, from the layperson's daily practice to the logical intricacies of the philosopher-monk's most abstruse formulations, it is in fact a combination of essential contributions from both traditions that has sustained the vital flow of the Jina's teachings through so many centuries.
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For a detailed description of âcârya Sântisagara's last days, see Sanmati (Marathi monthly), Oct. 1972, Bahubali, Kolhapur. Jainas have always claimed for themselves a degree of antiquity greater than that of Buddhism, the other important religion of this type. Their claim rests mainly upon an appeal to legendary materials; those few sources which do lend themselves to historical verification might allow us to push the date of Jainism to the ninth century B.C., but certainly no further. (For a more detailed discussion of the evidence available here. see pp. 16-19.) In any case, at this point the fundamental attitudes characterizing any group to which the rubric "non-Vaidic" has been applied should be clarified. They are three in number: rejection of the scriptural authority of the Vedas, Brahmanas, Upanisads, Mahâbhârata, Ramayana, and Dharmasatras; denial of the efficacy of sacrifice; and refusal to accord any “divine" status to Brahma, Visnu, Siva, or the great avatars depicted in the eighteen traditional Purânas. While ancient India abounded with various heterodox mendicant sects, only those which displayed this sort of pronounced antagonism towards brahmanical tradition received the appellation sramana. For a discussion of the conflict between the sramanas and brahmanical society, see P. S. Jaini 1970. In ancient times the epithet Jina was applied by various groups of sramanas to their respective, teachers. Mendicant followers of what eventually became known as the Jaina tradition were originally known as Nigantha (Sanskrit Nirgrantha), meaning "the unattached ones." It was only after other sramana sects using the term Jina (e.g., the Ajivikas) either died out or simply abandoned this term in favor of another (as in the case of the Buddhists) that the derived form Jaina (Jina-disciple) came to refer exclusively to the Niganthas. This seems to have occurred by around the ninth century, from which time inscriptions have been found containing the word "vardhatam Jainasasanam" (may the Jaina teaching prosper). See Upadhye 1939. For Buddhist references to Niganthas, see Malalasekera 1938: II, 61-65; C. J. Shah 1932: 5-7, P. S. Jaini 1976b; and n. 17 below. Early Buddhist texts employ this term (titthiya in Pali), as the general (and derogatory) label for teachers of non-Buddhist schools; Jainas have themselves used it exclusively for the teacher propagators of their own faith. Here the traditional Jaina definition is followed in terms of which "Jina" and
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