used, even in olden times, to describe those saved during their lifetimes
and used in the Śaivite doctrine to describe a consecrated one who is
on the way to redemption. An Arhat, among the Brâhmaṇs, is a man
distinguished for his knowledge and pious life (comp. for example
Âpastamba, _Dharmasûtra._ 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 Tîrthakara "prophet,
founder of religion", is derived from the Brâhmanic use of _tîrtha_
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 Brâhmaṇs, can a Jina see the light of the world. The
first Jina Ṛi̐shabha,—more than 100 billion oceans of years
ago,—periods of unimaginable length, [Footnote: A Sâgara or Sâgaropamâ 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 Ayodhyâ 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, Pârśva and the twenty fourth Vardhamâna,
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