But of most of these earlier sects one knows little.

Three or four names of reformers have been handed down; half a dozen opponents or rivals of Buddha existed and vied with him.

Most important of these, both on account of his probable priority and because of the lasting character of his school, was the founder or reformer of Jainism, Mah[=a]v[=i]ra Jn[=a]triputra,[4] who with his eleven chief disciples may be regarded as the first open seceders from Brahmanism, unless one assign the same date to the revolt of Buddha.

The two schisms have so much in common, especially in outward features, that for long it was thought that Jainism was a sub-sect of Buddhism.

In their legends, in the localities in which they flourished, and in many minutiae of observances they are alike.
Nevertheless, their differences are as great as the resemblance between them, and what Jainism at first appeared to have got of Buddhism seems now to be rather the common loan made by each sect from Brahmanism.