________________
298
Lord Mahavira
more than name them and fit them into a vast timescale, and it may be suggested that this list of teachers was concocted about the second or first centuries BCE, in partial imitation of the lists of Vedic seers found in the Upanishads, as a means of validating the Jain community as a self-aware religious group through extending the origins of the propounders of the doctrine back into the past. 45 By the early common era, the fordmakers as a group had assumed their role as guides through the forest of existence and captains of the ship sailing over the ocean of rebirth (AvNiry 904-17), and the particular emblems by which Jain iconography signals awareness of their separate identities were gradually introduced from the late fourth century CE onwards.46
While there is no doubt that Jains have from a devotional point of view been preoccupied through the centuries largely with Mahâvîra, Parshva, Rishabha and Nemi, it should not be concluded that other fordmakers are mere ciphers. Omitting an account of Malli until the next chapter, one should single out as particularly important Shanti who is regarded as being the personification of peace while there also seem to be some regional and sectarian preferences, as in the case of Ananta who is popular to day with southern Digambaras. Early Teachings
No religious tradition should be reduced to a simple set of basic principles nor, however congenial it might be to philological research, should an attempt be made to situate the complete essence of a religion in the words of some putative founder, both because it is usually extremely problematic to make objective decisions about what a founder actually said and because religions are obviously highly complex interlocking patterns of practice and belief which ultimately elude fixed categorisation. So, while we may be confident that the Jain scriptures preserve some reasonably accurate account of the content and style of Mahâvîra's teachings, the literal words of the fordmaker cannot be retrieved, a fact that is of no concern to Jains since, to them, Mahâvîra's teachings and the way Jainism. of whatever sect, manifests itself today are one and the same. Nonetheless, Jainism does have a history, even though its doctrinal component became stabilised at a relatively early date, and it is necessary to inspect the ancient texts to see
