Meanwhile, this is not absolutely impossible as the oldest preserved Jaina
canon had its first authentic edition only in the fifth or sixth century
of our era, and as yet the proof is wanting that the Jainas, in ancient
times, possessed a fixed tradition. The belief that I am able to insert
this missing link in the chain of argument and the hope of removing the
doubts of my two honoured friends has caused me to attempt a connected
statement of the whole question although this necessitates the repetition
of much that has already been said, and is in the first part almost
entirely a recapitulation of the results of Jacobi's researches.]
The oldest canonical books of the Jaina, apart from some mythological
additions and evident exaggerations, contain the following important notes
on the life of their last prophet. [Footnote: The statement that
Vardhamana's father was a mighty king belongs to the manifest
exaggerations. This assertion is refuted by other statements of the Jainas
themselves. See Jacobi, _S.B.E._ Vol. XXII, pp. xi-xii.] Vardhamana
was the younger son of Siddhartha a nobleman who belonged to the Kshatriya
race, called in Sanskrit Jnati or Jnata, in Prakrit Naya, and, according
to the old custom of the Indian warrior caste, bore the name of a
Brahmanic family the Ka['s]yapa. His mother, who was called Tri['s]ala,
belonged to the family of the governors of Videha.
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