Mahavira Jain Vidyalaya Rajat Jayanti Mahotsava

Author(s): Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya Mumbai
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

Page 188

P. C. DIVANJI
[M. J. VIDYALAYA
3. Much water has, however, passed under the bridge since then. Although the standard has still remained the same, the test has undergone a change. The only ancient language of India, then known to the Western scholars was Sanskrit and the only literature accessible to them was the Brahmanic and that too through imperfect and at times wrong translations so far at least as the early historians were concerned. That was the reason why it was at one time held that Jainism was but an offshoot of Buddhism. Later scholars discovered the hidden treasures of the Prakrit and Pali literatures, supplied correct translations of most of the important canonical works in all the ancient languages of India and established as facts of history those appearing to be true according to the comparative method, although there were no contemporary foreign writings for the period of their existence, on which alone the early scholars would rely. Three of those facts established so far as the history of Jainism was concerned were: (1) that Jainism had originated independently of Buddhism; (2) that Vardhamana Mahavir was a senior contemporary of Gautama Buddha; and (3) that he was not the first to conceive the cardinal principles of Jainism but the leader of a reform movement started in the cult as professed by the followers of Parsvanatha, whom the Jainas believe to be their twenty-third Tirthamkara, and who lived about 250 years prior to Mahavira. These later scholars amongst whom Dr. Bühler was the leading light were not prepared to make any positive or negative assertion as to the truth or otherwise of the Jaina tradition with regard to the 22 other Tirthamkaras commencing with Rṣabhadeva alias Adinatha having preceded Pärsvanatha in the same field. Very nearly half a century has passed away since Dr. Bühler wrote his paper on Jainism in which he set forth the above conclusions. Many catalogues of Mss. and many important works thereout have since been printed and published. Even from amongst the Jainas, there have come to the fore good Sanskrit and Prakrit scholars. And yet strange to say, no scholar, European or Indian, Jaina or non-Jaina, has brought out any authoritative work establishing a historical continuity of the Jaina tradition from the time of Rṣabhadeva whatever that time may be, to that of Pärsvanatha (about 700 B.C.). Let alone the time of Rabhadeva, it has not been established even from that of the immediate predecessor of Pārsvanatha, namely Ariṣṭanemi or Nemanatha. Why should it be so? The almost universal answer that one can expect to get is that there is a paucity of reliable data, the figures of the distances in time between the first 23 Tirthankaras and description of their bodies given in the Jaina works appearing to the critical minds to be hyperbolical. I do not consider this answer satisfactory so far as the present age is concerned, though it was
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