Description
The author has made a noble attempt to explore Jainism on the Early Faith of Asoka. A short time ago, a casual reference to the complicated Greek monograms stamped on the earlier Bactrian coins suggested to him an explanation of some of their less involved combinations by the test of simple Greek letter dates, which was followed by the curious discovery that the Bactrian kings were in the habit of recognizing and employing curtailed dates to the optional omission of the figure for hundreds, which seems to have been the immemorial custom in many parts of India. His chief authority for this conclusion was derived from a chance passage in Albiruni, whose statement, however, has since been independently supported by the interpretation of an inscription of the ninth century A. D. from Kashmir, which illustrates the provincial use of a cycle of one hundred years, and has now been definitively confirmed by information obtained by Buhler as to the origin of the Kashmiri era and the corroboration of the practice of the omission of the hundreds in stating dates still prevailing in that conservative kingdom. In most of the modern discussions on the ancient religions of India, the point at issue has been confined to the relative claims to priority of Buddhism and Brahmanism, a limitation which has led to a comparative ignoring of the existence of the exceptionally archaic creed of the Jainas. This third competitor for the honours of precedence has lately been restored to a very prominent position, in its archaeological status, by the discovery of numerous specimens of the sculptures and inscriptions of its votaries on the sacred site of Mathurd, that admit of no controversy, either as to the normal date or the typical import of the exhumed remains.
