Lord Mahavira and His Times

Author(s): Kailashchandra Jain
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 38

CHAPTER II
SOURCES
Since certain very significant changes took place in the political, religious, social, and economic spheres, the age of Lord Mahāvīra may be said to have marked a new epoch in Indian history. Also known as "The Historic Period', it provides a firm basis for the reconstruction of Indian chronology by furnishing dates of the death of Mahāvīra and Buddha. The sources for the reconstruction of the history of 'Lord Mahāvīra and His Times' may be divided into two main classes: (i) Literature and (ii) Archaeology. The literary evidence is very rich and varied in comparison with the archaeological.
1. LITERATURE
The contemporary literature on which this work is generally based remained in the form of oral traditions for a.considerable time and was codified much afterwards with certain interpolations and changes. Hence, it has been used after critical examination. The literary evidence is twofold: (a) direct and (b) collateral. The direct evidence is that which is furnished by the Jaina literary works, and the collateral one is gathered from the contemporary Buddhist and Brahmanical literary sources. Collating these sources of information, one cannot only prepare a sketch of the life of Mahāvira but also draw a fairly vivid picture of India, depicting political, religious, social, economic, and other conditions of the time in which he lived, moved and preached.
The Jaina literary works may be further divided into sub-classes. (i) Canonical Literary Works
These canonical works of the Jainas did not originate at one particular point of time, though their traditions can be traced back to Mahāvira and his disciples. But afterwards, these works had to undergo considerable changes, as a result of which