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and 10 the case of each it is often possible to distinguish between 20 & type and a recent one However, an allegedly ancient text might an archaic linguistic usage, metre or style of composition not becaus really ancient but because a recent author has deliborately resorted to aigms Similarly, an allegedly ancient text might be free from all dist recent linguistic usage, metre or style of composition not because it 13 ancient but because a recent author has deliberately refrained from reg to novelties It is only in case a text exhibits a distinctly recent lin; usage, metre or style of composition that we can legitimately conclud it is not ancient-again on the supposition that the passage in quest not a later interpolation (which it well might be) All this means the criterion of contents 18 the most crucial criterion for determining the ch logy of an ancient Indian text But the application of this criterio its own difficulties and pitfalls For in order to be able to apply the rion in question we must be in a position to aay that certain prol were raised in an ancient period but not in a recent one-or vice-vers how are we to say this except as a result of studying those very texts we intend to subject to the criterion in question ? In a word, w here apparently faced with a vicious circle The way out is to broader source of information and enhance our power of generalization Thi broadest possible consulting of sources and a boldest possible drawli generalizations should form the basis of oor aaying as to what prob were or were not raised in an ancient (or in a recent) period
These preliminary remarks should facilitate one's comprehensior the historical evaluation of the contents of the ancient Jains texts that foll
Jainism - liko Buddhism - 19 8 monastic religious sect - that is, a sec wbich intellectual and moral leadership is exercised by monks By wa contrast we may think of Brahmanism which is a religious sect where 1 llectual and moral leadership is exercised by the Brahmins usually lea the life of a householder Now in broad outlines this seo ms to be situation since long and one tends to think that in all details such it been since ever In point of fact, however, the whole thing is the re of a long course of evolution and it is this course of evolution that dese serious study in a correct perspective
Taking Brahmanism first, it is obvious that it took its rise within fold of the Vedic Aryan society wbich, to begin with, was unfamiliar the fourfold division into Brahmins (correctly Brahmanas), Ksatriyaa, Var And Sidras, a division--the celebrated Varna aystem--which is the hall-m of Brahmanism and which was resorted to under certain specific conditio For it so happened that when the Vedic Aryans - for long confined within
