from the world he receives the names of Mukta “the delivered one”, Siddha and Tathagata, “the perfected”, Arhat “the holy one”; and as the proclaimer of the doctrine, he is the Tirthakara “the finder of the ford”, through the ocean of the Sa[.m]sara.  In these epithets, applied to the founder of their doctrine, the Jainas agree almost entirely with the Buddhists, as the likeness of his character to that of Buddha would lead us to expect.  They prefer, however, to use the names Jina and Arhat, while the Buddhists prefer to speak of Buddha as Tathagata or Sugata.  The title Tirthakara is peculiar to the Jainas.  Among the Buddhists it is a designation for false teachers. [Footnote:  The titles Siddha, Buddha and Mukta are certainly borrowed by both sects from the terminology of the Brahma[n.]s, which they used, even in olden times, to describe those saved during their lifetimes and used in the [’S]aivite doctrine to describe a consecrated one who is on the way to redemption.  An Arhat, among the Brahma[n.]s, is a man distinguished for his knowledge and pious life (comp. for example Apastamba, Dharmasutra. I, 13, 13; II, 10, I.) and this idea is so near that of the Buddhists and the Jainas that it may well be looked upon as the foundation of the latter.  The meaning of Tirthakara “prophet, founder of religion”, is derived from the Brahmanic use of tirtha in the sense of “doctrine”.  Comp. also H. Jacobi’s Article on the Title of Buddha and Jina, Sac.  Books of the East.  Vol.  XXII, pp. xix, xx.]

The Jaina says further, however, that there was more than one Jina.  Four and twenty have, at long intervals, appeared and have again and again restored to their original purity the doctrines darkened by evil influences.  They all spring from noble, warlike tribes.  Only in such, not among the low Brahma[n.]s, can a Jina see the light of the world.  The first Jina [R.][.)i]shabha,—­more than 100 billion oceans of years ago,—­periods of unimaginable length, [Footnote:  A Sagara or Sagaropama of years is == 100,000,000,000,000 Palya or Palyopama.  A Palya is a period in which a well, of one or, according to some, a hundred yojana, i.e. of one or a hundred geographical square miles, stuffed full of fine hairs, can be emptied, if one hair is pulled out every hundred years:  Wilson, Select.  Works, Vol.  I, p. 309; Colebrooke, Essays, Vol.  II, p. 194. ed.  Cowell.]—­was born as the son of a king of Ayodhya and lived eight million four hundred thousand years.  The intervals between his successors and the durations of their lives became shorter and shorter.  Between the twenty third, Par[’s]va and the twenty fourth Vardhamana, were only 250 years, and the age of the latter is given as only seventy-two years.  He appeared, according to some, in the last half of the sixth century, according to others in the first half of the fifth century B.C.  He is of course the true, historical prophet of the Jainas