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FOUR AND TWENTY TIRTHAMKARAS
73
then-say 1500 to 800 B.C. and, indeed, from unknown times luled by Turanians, conveniently called Dravids, and given to tree, serpent and phalik worship .... but there also then existed throughout upper India an ancient and highly organized religion, philosophikal, ethikal and severely ascetikal, viz., Jainism out of which clearly developed the early ascetikal features of Brahmanism and Buddhism. Long before Aryans reached the Ganges or even the Sarasvati, Jainas had been taught by some twenty-trro prominent Bodhas, saints or Tirthamkaras, prior to the historical twenty-third Bodha Parsva of the eighth or ninth century B.C., and he knew of all his predecessors-pious Rishis living at long intervals of time; and of several scriptures even then known as Purvas or Puranas, that is, 'ancient,' which had be 'n handed down for ages in the memory of recognized anchorites, Vanaprasthas or 'forest l'ecluses.' This was more especially a Jaina Order, severely enforced by all their "Bodhas' and particularly in the sixth century B.C. by the twenty-fourth and last, Mahavira of 598-526 B.C. This ascetik Order continued in Brahmanism and Buddhism throughout distant Baktria and Dacia. ..."
It would thus seen that the moderns have to revise their methods of reasoning and research if they wish their inferences to accord with solid facts.
