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JAINISM
remember both that the Jain religion is certainly older than Mahāvīra, his reputed predecessor, Pārśva, having almost certainly existed as the real person, and that consequently the main points of the original doctrine may have been codified long before Mahāvīra."17 In a similar strain Dasgupta writes: "The story in the Uttaradhyayana that a disciple of Pārśva met a disciple of Mahāvīra and brought about the union of the old Jainism and that propounded by Mahāvīra seems to suggest that this Pārśva was probably a historical person."18 From all these it is evident that Jainism was at least older than Mahāvīra.
17 See Intr. to Uttaradhyayana-Sūtra, p. 21 18 op. cit., Vol. I, p. 169
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