Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c5.s10.10

c5.s10.10

Lastly, a reference must be made to a large number of Inscriptions that have come to light. The Mathura Inscriptions belonging to the reign of Kaniṣka and his successors prove that the Jain community had attained a highly developed stage in the first century A D. In these inscriptions are given the names of the Patriarchs belonging to different *gaṇas* (schools), *kulas* (families) and *sākhās* (branches), already referred to, which mostly coincide with the list of the teachers and the schools founded by those teachers as given in the *Kalpa Sūtra* of Bhadrabāhu.¹⁸ Thus we see that the tradition preserved in the Jain Canons is pretty old and contains much historicity and hence as Buddhist books have been used as materials for the history of Buddhism, there is no reason why we should distrust the Jain Canons as an authentic source of the Jain Church.