Mahavira Jain Vidyalaya Rajat Jayanti Mahotsava

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

Page 192

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P. C. DIVANJI
[M. J. V. SILVER JUBILEE
salvation even to the householders if they discharged their duties according to the dictates of the Varnadharma, to which some of the families of the Brahmanas had continued to adhere. Aristaneri opposed this move and he and his followers remained outside the pale of the re-formed Vedic cult and continued to follow their own traditional method.
7. The origin of the principles and practices of Jainism can thus be traced to about 2300 B.C. and that of its existence as a distinct heterodox cult from a date falling between 1100 and 1000 B.C. The credit for the first goes to Rsabhadeva the first Tirthamkara and that for the second to Ariştanemi or Nemanātha, the twenty-second Tirtharkara.**
I am sorry I have not been able to cite book, chapter, and verse in support of the important statements made herein aa is my wont but a limited amount of time at my disposal is my excuse for this departure from my usual practice and for the information of the inquisitive I can say generally that the Bhagawata school works above referred to are :-(1) Bhagavata Purāma, (2) Bhagawad Gita, (3) Mahabharata, (4) Harivarnsa, and (5) Rāmāyana of Valmiki, and the Jaina school works above referred to are: (1) Thigasthiếalákāpuruşacarita of Hemacandra, and (2) Harivarka Purana of Jinasena. Occasional use has also been made of Winternitz's History of Indian Literature, Pargiter's Dynasties of the Kali Age, Ancient Indian Historical Tradition and Article on "Puranas" in the Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethica, Vincent-Smith's Early History of India and some articles in Journals of international repute such as the Annals of the B. O. R. Institute and the Poona Orientalist,