This activity led
them, indeed, far from their proper goal, but it created for them an
important position in the history of literature and culture.
The resemblance between the Jainas and the Buddhists, which I have had so
often cause to bring forward, suggests the question, whether they are to
be regarded as a branch of the latter, or whether they resemble the
Buddhists merely because, as their tradition asserts, [Footnote: The later
tradition of the Jainas gives for the death of their prophet the dates
545, 527 and 467 B.C. (see Jacobi, _Kalpasutra_ introd. pp. vii--ix
and xxx). None of the sources in which these announcements appear are
older than the twelfth century A.D. The latest is found in Hemachandra who
died in the year 1172 A.D. The last is certainly false if the assertion,
accepted by most authorities, that Buddha's death falls between the years
482 and 472 B.C. is correct. For the Buddhist tradition maintains that the
last Jaina Tirhakara died during Buddha's lifetime (see p. 34).] they
sprang from the same period and the same religious movement in opposition
to Brahmanism. This question, was formerly, and is still sometimes,
answered in agreement with the first theory, pointing out the undoubted
defects in it, to justify the rejection of the Jaina tradition, and even
declaring it to be a late and intentional fabrication.
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