The Doctrine of the Jainas, Described after the Old Sources c6.2

c6.2

§12. Any historical sketch of the Jain religion has to deal not only with the objective results of research but also with the facts maintained by this religion. We shall consider the latter first. They are based on the assumption of the world having neither beginning nor end, i.e. being everlasting. Incessantly, though only within a small part of the universe, the wheel of time revolves with its spokes (samā), the gradations ranging from the paradisical to the catastrophical period (§ 120) and back to the former, ceaselessly passing through the point denoting the present. The descending half-circle, and it is this where we find ourselves, is called osappiṇī, the ascending ussappiṇī. Either produces a number of prophets of salvation (titthagara) as Mahāvīra is, and just as his teaching (tittha) is destined to last not longer than 21,000 years (Viy. 792a, comp. also § 120), so the teachings of all his precursors were doomed to degenerate and so will be those of all that come after him. But from every degeneration a new prophet will save the teaching, if only but after an immeasurably long intermediate period (antara). Since all this occurs periodically, the Jains can afford to be quite easy in stating the inevitable impendency of degeneration.¹