The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c9.23

v1.c9.23

Efforts to establish an earlier date for the Saṁhitās and the Brāhmaṇas have naturally been made, and of these two may be mentioned. Jacobi² has insisted that the post-Vedic period may be dated from *c.* 800 B. C. on the strength of the fact that the end of the Vedic period is marked by the simultaneous appearance of the Sāṁkhya-Yoga and Jaina philosophies, and the latter can be carried back to *c.* 740 B. C., seeing that the founder of the faith was probably Pārçva, whose Nirvāṇa falls 250 years before that of Mahāvīra, and the latter was contemporaneous with the Buddha, who died about 483 B. C. The argument is extremely unconvincing, apart altogether from our complete ignorance as to the historical character and the date of Pārçva. It assumes that the Jain doctrines as we know them go back before Mahāvīra, and that they presuppose the doctrines of the Upaniṣads as older. Neither proposition possesses the slightest plausibility, and neither need be seriously discussed in the absence of any effort of Jacobi to support his assertion in this matter by reasoned proof.