Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c5.s14.5

c5.s14.5

Inspite of the three recensions which the Jain texts had undergone and the consequent changes which were effected in the body of the texts from time to time it would not be an exaggeration to say that much of the material which they embody point to a much early civilization than the sixth century A.D., when the final redaction of the texts was effected. Our comparison of the social material in the Jain Sūtras with the material of the same in the Buddhist Tripitaka which as pointed out by the scholars is definitely old. For instance, the reference to the architectural terms in the Jain Sūtras with then comparison with the architectural terms in the Pali Suttas should convince us of the truthfulness of our assertion. It is not the purpose of the present work to make a comparative study of the parallel features of the Jain and Buddhist Sūtras which should form a separate study by itself. But wherever possible such parallelisms have been pointed out.