Jaina Sources of the History of Ancient India

by Jyoti Prasad Jain

The contribution of the Jaina sources to the making of the history of our great nation, during the epoch-making millennium of 100 BC to AD 900, is of vital importance. But it has only lacked proper research and application.

This book presents a brief survey of the more important sources, particularly literary ones, and a discussion of certain fundamental problems such as the dates of Mahavira and of the beginning of the Earlier Saka, Vikrama, and Saka eras, as well as the dates of important Jaina authors and their works and thus clears much of the fog that masks Indian Chronology, both political and cultural.

About the Author:

Dr. Jyoti Prasad Jain, M.A., LL.B., Ph.D. (1912-88), vidya-varidhi, Itihasamanisi, was an erudite scholar of Indian history and culture. He was born in Meerut and left this carnal world at Luckbnow. He was a prolific writer both-in English and Hindi. He well deserved the epithet of Itihasa-manisi (Historian par excellence) as he brought into focus the hitherto englected Jaina sources for the reconstruction of history of India. Some of his other popular works are: Religion and Culture of the Jains; Jainism the Oldest Living Religion; Bhagawan Mahavira: Life, Times and Teachings; Bharatiya Itihasa: Eka Drsti; Pramukha Aithasika Jaina Purusa aur Mahilayen; and Jain-Jyoti: Aitihasika Vyaktikosa.