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A Survey of Jaina Religion and Philosophy.
By Dr. Nathmal Tatia, Director, Research Institute of Prakrit, Jainology and Abimsa, Vaishali,
Muzaffarpur.
So far as the tradition preserved in the Jaina Agamas is concerned, Jainism is to be traced to prehistoric times for its origin. To be precise, Jainism as a religious movement and philosophical attitude is undatable. In this respect, it is on a par with Vedic religion It has been shown with overwhelming weight of evidence by Shrimat Anirvanaji in bis Vedamimansa, recently published, that there were free thinkers contemporaneously with the Rsis of the Samhitas, who did not profess allegiance to the religion of sacrifice Whatever that may be, Jainism, Budhism and other protestant creeds took distinctive shape and structure several centuries before the Christian era, and this does not admit of dispute. Vardhmana Mahavira was the elder contemporary of Gautama Buddha Parsvanatha, the immediately precedent Tirthankara, 18 admitted on all hands to have been a historical figure. Mahavira's family was attached to the creed of Parsvanatha. There are evidences in the Jaina Agama that Mahavira succeeded in winning over the followers of Parsyapatha to his reformed church Mahavira consolidated the monastic order as well as the lay community on strictly regulated code of religious observances This explains the survival of the Jaina religion, though Buddhism disappeared from the land of its birth after the Muslim conquest in the 13th century. This is in a nutshell the historical background of Jaina religion and philosophy.
The division of the Jajna church into Svetambara and Digambara schools is believed to have taken place at the time of Bhadrabahu who was a contemporary
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