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JAINS
1.J INTRODUCTION
“Namo Arihantanam" THIS IS THE FIRST line of the fundamental prayer of Jains which says “I pay my profound respect to any living person who has conquered his inner enemies (or his own lower nature)". This is irrespective of the religion, caste or social status of the individual.
Jainism is derived from the word Jina in the old Indian language of Ardha-Magadhi which was the common language in some parts of India 2,500 years or so ago-the word Jin means “the person who is a spiritual victor" and Jainism is now taken to mean the religion followed by Jains. However, to emphasise the path followed towards self-conquest rather than the religion, we will understand Jainism as Jainness.
Loosely speaking, Jainism was founded by what are called Tirthankaras. Tirthankaras are the people who show the true way across the troubled ocean of life; they are leaders on a spiritual path. In all there were 24 Tirthankaras. The first of them was Rsabha.
Rsabha flourished ages ago according to Jain tradition, but the historicity of the religion has been unanimously accepted from the time of its 23rd Tirthankara, Parsva, about 2,800 years ago, (traditionally dated 872 B.C.-772 B.C.). The Jain logic and philosophy came into prominence at the time of its 24th Tirthankara, Mahavira, who was born in 559 B.C. and whose nirvana took place in 527 B.C. He was a contemporary of Gautama Buddha (563 B.C. 483 B.C.), the overlap being 36 years but they did not meet. It is commonplace to be confused between these two leaders and even their religions. In iconography a simple distinction may be made by clothes ---- Mahavira is normally without these unlike Buddha (see Figure 1.1.). Note that Buddha was in the process of enlightenment when Mahavira was at the peak of his career. For further details on Maha vira's life see Appendix 1. To bring these dates into perspective we may note that Aristotle was born in 384 B.C. and Jesus Christ around 4 B.C. It may be no dt hat India celebrated the 2.500th anniversary of Mahavira's nir ana between 13th November 1974 and
