A History of Indian Literature v2.c20.s2.23

v2.c20.s2.23

Even though the tradition of the Jainas themselves would not appear to be in favour of investing their sacred texts with a very great antiquity, there are nevertheless good reasons for attributing their first origin, at least in part, to an earlier age, and for assuming that Devarddhi’s labours consisted merely of compiling a Canon of sacred writings partly with the help of old manuscripts, and partly on the basis of oral tradition. As a matter of fact, there are inscriptions of the 1st and 2nd centuries A. D. which prove that, even at that early period, the Jainas were split into Śvetāmbaras and Digambaras, and that there were schools (gaṇa) where the successive teachers were enumerated just as in our texts. As the same inscriptions also mention monks with the title of Vācaka, *i.e.*, "reader," there must have been sacred texts at any rate in those days. Inscriptions and bas-reliefs prove that the legend of Mahāvīra as known in the first century A. D. was very similar to that found in our texts. The fact that the Śvetāmbaras did not alter in their Siddhānta those rules which require that Jaina monks shall go naked, shows that they did not venture to make any arbitrary alterations in the texts, but handed them down as faithfully as they could.¹ Lastly, it is also an eloquent argument in favour of the trustworthiness of the Jaina tradition, that it should coincide exactly with the Buddhist tradition in many remarkable details.²