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ANTIQUITY OF JAINISM.
by Kailasha Chandra Jain, M. A. Jaipur. The origin of Jainism is shrounded in considerable obscurity. The available evidence to decide the questions is soanty, dubious and capable of different interpretations. Scholars have therefore come to widely divergent conclusions. Mrs. Stevenson is of opinion that Jainism originated as a protest against the sacrifice and oasteism of the Brahmanism in the eighth loontury B.C. Acoording to Jacobi, there are even traces of Jainism even in the Vedio period. Dr. Zimmer and Farlong observe that there was the existence of the Sramaña oulture before the Aryans in India. Dr. Zimmer calls it by the name of the Drávidan religion while Farlong considers it to be different from the religion of the Drávidans.
The divergence of views among the Scholars about the antiquity of Jainism is thus almost bewildering. The question has therefore to be examined and considered carefully, critically and exhaustively in order to arrive at some conclusion. Jainism Older Than Buddhism:
From the Buddhist and Jain records, it is clear that Jainism is older than Buddhism and was firmly established at the time of the origin of Buddhism. Mahavira was not the founder and author of Jain religion but simply a reformer. Many abuses had crept into Jainism at that time and he simply tried to remove them. His parents had, according to a tradition which seems to be trustworthy, been followers of Páráva. He himself, when he became a monk, returned to the chaitya of his own lawn called Duipalása 6 The chaitya se to be of the Jains. Even Buddha after giving up the worldly life
1. The Heart of Jainism, p. 48. 2. S. B. E. Vol. 45, Introduction, p. 33. 3. Philosophies of India, pp. 217 to 227. 4. Short studies in the Science of comparative religions. PP. 248-244. 8. S. B. E, Vol. 22, P. 194. 6. Uvasagadaso.
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