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24. We ought also to remember both that the Jaina
religion is certainly older than Mahavira, his reputed predecessor Pārsva having almost certainly existed as a real person.
-The Uttaradhyayanasutra by J. Charpentier,
Uppsala 1922, Introduction, p. 21 25. As he ( Vardhamān Mahāvira) is referred to in
the Buddhist Scriptures as one of the Buddha's chief opponents, his historicity is beyond doubt ... ....Parsva was remembered as twentythird of the twentyfour great teachers or Tirthankaras 'ford makers of the Jaina faith'-The Wonder that
was India by Prof. A. L Basham, pp. 287-88. 26. Miscellaneous Essays, ii, p. 276 27. Parsvanátha, the Tirthankara, who immediately
preceded Mahāvira, may also have been an historical person...If so, he was the real founder of Jainism, Mahāvira being only a reformer who carried still further the work that Pārsvanātha had begun -The Heart of Jainism by S.
Stevenson, New Delhi, 1970, p. 48. 28. Buddhists refer to them as ascetics (samaņas)
and brahmins. Little is known of them historically, but one of these bodies, the Jainas, still exists - The Ouest of Enlightenment by E. J.
Thomas, London 1950, Intfroduction. p. 4. 29. See. Indian Philosophy by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan,
Vol. I p. 291
30.
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