Book Title: Lord Mahavira and His Times Author(s): Kailashchandra Jain Publisher: Motilal BanarasidasPage 23
________________ CHAPTER 1 JAINISM BEFORE LORD MAHAVIRA The history of Jainism before Lord Mahāvīra is shrouded in considerable obscurity. Materials which can reconstruct it are scanty, dubious and capable of different interpretations, Scholars have, therefore, come to widely divergent conclusions. The Jainas themselves believe that their religion is eternal and that before Mahāvīra (C. 600 B.C.), there lived twentythree Tirthankaras who appeared at certain intervals to propagate true religion for the salvation of the world. Some scholars? hold that there are traces of the existence of śramana culture even in pre-Vedic times. H. JACOBI tried to prove, both from the Buddhist and the Jaina records, that Pārsvanātha, the immediate predecessor of Mahāvīra, who is said to have flourished some 250 years before him, is a historical personality. JAINA RELIGION AS ETERNAL According to the traditions preserved in the scriptures, Jaina religion is eternal, and it has been revealed again and again in every cyclic period of the world by innumerable Tirthankaras. The whole span of time is divided into two equal cycles, Utsarpiņi Kāla and Avasarpiņi Kila. Each Utsarpini and Avasarpini Kāla extends over ten Koța-koļi Sāgaropama years which are sub-divided into six parts known as aras. The 1. H. ZIMMER : Philosophies o, India, pp. 217-227; J.G.R. FORLONG : Short Studies in the Science of Comparative Religions, pp. 243-244; PSOB : p. 260; TULSI : Pre-Vedic Existence of Sramara Tradition. 2. SBE, XLV, pp. xx-xxiii.Page Navigation
1 ... 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 ... 427