Outlines of Jainism

Author(s): S Gopalan
Publisher: Wiley Eastern Private Limited New Delhi

Page 24

JAINISM BEFORE MAHAVIRA
Wilson, in his translation
the first Tirthankara, Rṣabha by name. of the Visnu-Purāṇa writes: "Nabhi had by his queen Maru the magnanimous Rṣabha, and he had a hundred sons, the eldest of whom was Bharata. Having ruled with equity and wisdom, and celebrated many sacrificial rites, he resigned the sovereignty of the earth to the heroic Bharata. . "14 In a foot-note on the BhāgavataPurāṇa Wilson adds: "That work enters much more into detail on the subject of Rṣabha's devotion, and particularizes circumstances not found in any other Purāṇa. The most interesting of these are the scenes of Rṣabha's wanderings which are said to be Konka, Venkata, Kutaka, and southern Karnataka, or the Western part of the Peninsula; and the adoption of the Jaina belief by the people of those countries."15 Emphasizing the historical value of the Purāņas Bühler observes: "In particular must it be admitted that the persons introduced in the older, as well in the most recent, narratives are really historical characters. Although it is frequently the case that an individual is introduced at a period earlier or later than that to which he really belonged or that the most absurd stories are told with regard to him, yet there is no case forthcoming in which we could affirm with certainty that a man named by these chroniclers is a pure figment of the imagination. On the contrary, every freshly discovered inscription, every collection of old manuscripts, and every really historic work that is brought to light, furnishes confirmation of the actual existence of one or other of the characters described by them. In the same way all exact dates given by them deserve the most careful attention. When they are found to agree in two works of this class that are independent of one another they may, without hesitation, be accepted as historically correct."16 The purport of all these in our context is that we have, in addition to the historical evidences, further evidences from the Purānas regarding the historicity of at least the last two Tirthankaras.
15
Among the modern scholars Colebrooke, Stevenson, Edward Thomas and Jarl Charpentier have held the opinion that Jainism is older than Mahāvīra. Charpentier observes: "We ought also to
14 p. 163
15 Ibid., p. 164
16 Uber da Leben des Jaina-Monches Hemacandra, p. 6 cited by C.J. Shah, op. cit., pp. 191-192