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born in Banaras. There is much more historical evidence about him. Also there were other Tirthankaras; some were prehistoric. It is difficult to give all the background, but one thing is certain to verify the antiquity of Jainism: Historians all agree that the oldest scriptures are the Vedas. According to Toynbee and other scholars, the Vedas are 5 to 6 thousand years old. And in the Vedas the names of the Jain Tirthankaras Rishabh Adinath, Bharata, Arishthanemi are mentioned. This shows that even in the times of the Vedas, Jainism was being practiced.?
Jainism is realistic rather than idealistic. But its attitude of realism leads to idealism. It sees the world not as a dream, but as reality. You cannot say that the world is only maya, illusion, a dream, as one school of philosophy thinks.
That philosophy is idealistic. Realism is complementary to that. Jainism says that this world is real and not a dream. It is tangible and expressible. In this sense Jainism emphasizes the reality of things-of the atoms of matter. It sees that the world is nothing but a construction of atoms.
2 The Sourcebook of Indian Philosophy. edited by Dr. Radhakrishnan and Moore, gives an excellent description of Jainism. (Princeton University Press)
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