Jain Presence In Nepal

Author(s): Ernest Bender
Publisher: Ernest Bender
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/269705/1

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The Jain Presence in Nepal
Ernest Bender
• University of Pennsylvania
As contrasted with Brāhmanism/Hinduism and with Buddhism, there are
no readily recognizable traces of Jainism in contemporary Nepal though
the Jain presence in the adjacent area in the past is on record.
Mahāv Ira severely limited the movements of Jain monks and nuns to
an area which he defined as an Aryan regiony that is a region where
their conduct could be sareguarded It was bounded by Anga-Magadha in the east and Thūņā (Thaneshwar) in the west, to Kuņālā (Srāvasti) in the north and KošāmbI in the south. Under Samprati, the grandson of Asoka,
the area was extended to the twenty-five and a half countries comprising his empire, with the charge that Jain munts de venerated. The identification of the last country on the list, KekayI-ardha, has been located at the base of Nepal, in the north-east of Srāvasti. (1)
of the trade routes of antique times, the Uttarāpatha, stretching across the north of the Indian continent, facilitated traffic for the
sārthas, the caravans which linked flourishing cities and towns, among
then Vaidāli, SravastI and Kapi lavastu, -the latter of which Moti
Chandra identifies with Tilaurakot in Nepal. He equates Janakpur, in
Nepal, with Mithilā, the capital of Videba. (2)
The itinerant merchant, under the constant threat of robbers lying
in wait along his way, entrusted his well-being and precious possessions to the security of the caravan and its skilled sārthavāna or

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sārt havāhana, the entrepreneur, who was responsible for the management
and success of the venture. He made arrangements for the operation of
the caravan, its route, its schedule, the types of vehicle and, the assignment to them of the participants in each onterprise -- old and young, male and female, merchant, casual commuter, and so on. He dealt with the official representatives of the countries along the route,
negotiating with them and paying the required surcharges.
(A sārtha
has been described as a consortium of merchants who invested equal
amounts of capital and, travelling in a caravan, carried on trade with outside markets. One might view the sārthavana as a forerunner of the
present-day multinational organizations.
Furthermore, the caravan
leader had many opportunities to observe and store in mind for future
reference social scenes and political events set against the background
of the geographical phenomena of the areas he traversed. This leads me
to the conclusion that the court officials, identified as Breathing (3)
(cf., for example, Hindi seth "merchant")[3] were not only financial
advisers and tax assessors and as well as collectors to rājās and their
officers, but could also function as heads of intelligence networks.
equipped with first-hand information obtained from their widely ranging
merchant-colleagues. (I need only refer to the Arthasāstra's comments on the recruitment for espionage of wayward merchants and monks - Jain and Buddhist.)
Por other clues to the Jain presence in Nepal we turn to Jain
writings. Moti Chandra in his Trade and Trade Routes in Ancient India
which first appeared in Hindi under the title
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Sārthavana observes that the canonical literature, the a/gas, the upangas, gātbās, cūrņis and the commentaries pertaining thereto contain cultural data not found in pali or Sanskrit literature. The sparcity in
available texts has made access to this material dire icult. (For
example, one encounters in the Paumacariu of Svayambhu of the second
half of the 9th century A.D., stray references to Nepal, one to its misk
and the other to the thighs of its women. (4)) In discussing the
Sārt navāna Moti Chandra contrasts Buddhist with Jain writers: "...it
is dirricult to learn) from Buddhist literature in what kinds of goods the merchants traded and what was their organization ... Jaina
11terature believes in giving even the minutest details ...
The Jaina
monks were wanderers ... and, while travelling from place to place,
they did not fail to observe the life of the people. Jainism was also
chietly the religion of merchants and, therefore, the Jaina literature
has not failed to describe the various aspects of the le of their
followers. Jain monks, wherever they went, studied [the] geographical
and social conditions and also the local language in order to preach .. • Whatever ... their date ... the material preserved is ancient. ..
Both Digambara and Syetambara traditions are in general agreement
that during the reign of Candragupta Maurya (c. 322-298 B.C.) a severe
famine in Magadha, lasting a dozen years, forced a migration of the
Jains to the south. The Avašyakacūrni of Jinadāsagaại Mahattara (ri.
second half of second century A.D.) first records the Svetāmbara
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tradition describing the move to Nepal of Bhadrabahu, the head of the Sangha. (5)
The famed Jain savant Hemacandra (fl. mid-twelfth century A.D.), gives a fuller account in the Sthaviravali or Parisiṣṭaparvan, the appendix to his Tripaptisalkāpuruşcarita. (6)
itašca tasminduṣkāle karāle kālaratrivat 1)
nirvāhārtham sadhusanghastiram niranidheryayau 11551| agunyamanan tu tada sädhūnā vista rutan I anubhyasanato nasyatyadh Itam dhimatamapi 1156: samgho 'tha paṭal Iputre duşkalante 'khilo milat yadangadhyay anoddedуäsidyasya tadadade 115711 tataboaikdabangini drIsangho 'melayattada dṛṣṭivādanimittam ca tasthau kimcidvicintayan 158|| nepalade samargasthan bhadrabānu ea purviņam!
jnāt vā sanghaḥ samanvātum tataḥ praisinmunidvayam 1159|| gatvā natvā muni tau tamityuoäte kṛtānjali
samadišati vaḥ samghastat ragamanahetave 116011 so 'pyuvāca manāpräpaṇ dhyānam rabdhamasti yat I sādhyap dvādasabhirvaga irnirgamigyayahan tataḥ 116111 manā prāne hi nişpanne kärye kasmimicidagate | sarvapurvāņi gupyante süträrthābhyāṇ muhurtataḥ 116211 tadvacastau muni gatva samghasyabansatamatha | samgho 'pyaparamahūyadideseti munidvayam 116311 gatvā vācyāḥ sa acaryo yan drIsanghasya Aāsanam | na karoti bhavet tasya dandaḥ ka iti šansa nan 116411
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samghabanyan sa kart av ya iti vakti yadā sa tu ! tarhi taddaņqayogyo 'sityācāryo vācya ucсaka in 116511
tābhyām gatvā tathaivokta ācāryo 'pyevamūcivāni
maivam karotu bhagagānsamghah kin tu karotvadan 116611 mayi prasādam kurvāṇaḥ sr Isamghaḥ praninot viha $işyānmedhāvinastebhyan sapta dāsyāmi vācanăn 116711 tatraikām vācanām dāsye bhikṣā caryāta āgatan | tisrşu kālavelāsu tisronyā vācanastathā 116811 sāyānhapratikramane jāte tisro 'parāḥ punan set syatyevam samghakāryam matkāryasyāvibādhayā 1169/ tābhyāmetya tathākhyāte sr Isamgho 'pi prasādabhāk prāniņotsthūlabhadrādisādhupamcasatim tataḥ 11701 1 tānsürrivācayāmāşa te 'pyalpā vācanā iti i
udbhajyeyurnijam sthānam sthūlabhadrastvavāsthita 117111
sr Ibhadrabānupādānta sthūlabhadro maddā mati pūrvāņāmştakam varşa ir apāțnIdaştabhirbhrsam 117211 kimud bhagnastadityuktan sūriņā so 'bravididam!
nodbhajye bhagavankam tu samālpā eva vācanān 117311
sūrirūce mama dhyānam pārņaprāyamıdan tatan tadante vācanāstubhyam pradāsyāmi tvadicchayā 117411
sthūlabhadrastatan proce 'dhItageşam ca me kiyat 1
samkhyām gurustadā cākhyadbindūda dhyupamāna taḥ 117511 pUrne dhyāne mahāprāņe sthūlabhadro mahāmunin 1
dvivastūnāni pārvāṇi dada yāvatsamāpayat 117611
1tyākhyāya sthūlabhadrānujñātā j1jamāšrayam 1
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tā yayuh sthūlabhadro 'pi vācanārthamagādgurum 1110111
na dadau vācanām tasyāyogyo' sityādisadguguh
Ikşādināt prabhrtyeşo pyaparādhānvyacintay at 1110211 cintayitvā ca na hyāgan smarāmIti jagāda ca !
krt vā na manyase sāntam pāpamityavada dguruh 1110311
"During the famine, dreadful like the night of annihilation at the end
of the world, to survive the Samgha went to the sea. At that time the sacred texts, neglected, were misremembered by the monks and from lack of practice, were about to be lost, even though they were studied by
the learned. When the famine was over the entire Samgha met at
Pāţaliputra and, assembling the fragments they recalled, collected
eleven Aņgas. Thinking to recover the twelfth Amga, the Drștivāda,
and knowing that the venerable Bhadrabānu (the sole repository of that
Amga ) was staying in Nepal, the Samgha sent two munis to call him (to
the Council). The two munis went there and bowing reverently
addressed him, "The Samgha sends for you," He replied, "I have begun
the Mahāprāna-meditation which will take twelve years to complete.
When I have completed the Mahāprāņa, I will recount in a short time
all the Pūrvas and the meanings of the Sūtras."
The two munis went
off and repeated his reply to the Samgha.
The Samgha, once again,
sent two munis with instructions to ask him the punishment an Acārya
should incur who does not heed the bidding of the Samgha. If he says
1t should be exclusion from the Samgha, let him be told it is a fitting punishment. When this took place. Bhadrabānu said to the two minis, "Let the Noble Samgha not do so. However, let it do this. May
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the Revered Samgha be gracious and send learned students to whom, when
it is convenient (1.e., in the intervals during my performance of the
Mahāprāņa), I will recite seven lectures to them every day."
The
Samgha agreed and sent to Bhadrabānu five hundred munis, headed by St hūlabhadra. Of the group, only Sthūlabhadra was able to keep up with Bhadrabāhu to the completion of the Mahāprāņa and was able to
learn the first ten Purvas.
Subsequently, having reason to consider Sthūlabhadra unworthy,
Bhadrabānu discontinued his lectures, even though he begged his
forgiveness. He finally relented and said he would instruct
Sthūlabhadra in the remaining Pūrvas, with the provision that these
(the last four Pūrvas) cannot be taught by him to anyone. Sthūlabhadra assumed the leadership of the Samgha after Bhadrabānu's
death."
In the matter of the dearth of Jain archaeological remains we can
quote the historian, Vincent A. Smith , who, writing in 1915, noted:
In olden days the creed of Manāvīra was far more widely diffused than it
is now.
In the 7th century A.D., for instance, the creed had numerous
followers in Valsāli (north of Patna) and in eastern Bengal, localities
where its adherents are now extremely few. I have myself seen abundant
evidences of the former prevalence of Jainism in Bundelkhand during the
the mediaeval period especially in the 11th-12th centuries. Jain images
in the country are numerous in places where a Jaina is now never
seen. (7)
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A contemporary scholar, Luciano Petech, suggests in his Medieval
History of Nepal (p. 195] that the Sulanki (also spelled SurakI) family
of the principality of Sikharapur I (Pharping), fourteenth to sixteenth
centuries A.D., was connected with the Solanki dynasty of Gujarat
several of whose kings were either Jains or influenced by them. He
further suggests that the Pharping family had migrated from that area.
A Book of Omens noted on page 38 in his Art of Nepal by Pratipaditya Pal
contains an interesting reference to a "Jain mendicant." 18Y
Sylvain Levi in his History of Nepal, Pt. I, (9) describes an
inscription which he found at Kathmandu written on the pedestal of a
statue which has disappeared and replaced by another image. The gist of
his translation reads: "In the year 402, while the king Māna deva
governed the earth properly...the chief of a company of merchants,
Guhamitra, erected with devotion a holy Divākara under the name of
Indra. He assigned for revenue) a field in the locality of
Yathāgumpad šum(?), (valued) at a hundred (paņas) and land to the size of
a pindaka."
Levi, I should note considered the composite divinity,
1.e., Divakara-Indra, erected and worshipped by Guhamitra puzzlingly.
syncretic. (10)
Again we turn to Jain sources for its solution. Acārya Ravişeņa,
the author of the Padma Purāņa, c. 678 A.D., refers to himself as the
granddisciple of Arhatmund, the disciple of Divakara whose preceptor was the earliest guru, Indra. (11) The inscription can now be interpreted: Guhamitra, the head of a sārtha, a Jain, erected the image to the Ur
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guru, Indra, whose disciple was Divakara and that he, Guhamitra, had donated a portion of land in Yathagumpadŝum (?), the yield of which was for the maintenance of the image and its attendant shrine.
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Perhaps this beginning will encourage interest in studies into the traditions of groupings in the Newar merchant-castes, e.g., the Shresthas/Sheshyas, for further evidence of Jain presence in Nepal.
NOTES
1. Jagdishchandra Jain,
Prakrit Narrative Literature, Origin and Growth, pp. 155-56; and Brhatkalpa Sutra 1.50.
2. Moti Chandra, Trade and Trade Routes in Ancient India. Abhinav Publications. New Delhi. 1977. Pp. 50, 77.
3.See, e.g., Ardhakathanaka: Half a Tale by Mukund Lath. Publisher: Rajasthan Prakrit Bharati Sansthan, Jaipur; distributor: Impex India, New Delhi. 1981. On p. 111 Dr. Lath writes "The Nisitha Curni a Jain text written by Jinadas Gani in the 7th century, records that one of the ministers in a king's council of his days was called the 'sresthi'. He was an important businessman, representative of merchants and trading guilds of the state." See, also, pp. 7-8 of this earliest biography of the mid-seventeenth century where the author
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describes his Jain father's service in Bengal as a revenue-collector for
the diwan, himself a pious Jain. "He had five hundred men serving under
him as potdars (read: fotdār] (revenue-collectors), who were all lucky
men, busy amas sing great wealth.".
4. Bhayani, Paumacarių, Vol. II, pp. 192 and 224.
5. Asim Kumar Chatterjee, A Comprehensive History of Jainism (up to 1000 A.D.). Firma KLM Private Limited. Calcutta. 1978, and Buddha Prakash, The Genesis of the Digambara-Svetāmbara Split,'in Mahāvīra and His Teachings, Bhagavān mahavira 2500th Nirvāņa Mahotsava Samiti, Bombay, 1977, P. 272, fn.4:
[4. tammi ya kale bārasavariso dukkālo uvatthi samjatāito ya samuddatire.
ācchettā puņaravi pādaliputte militā annassa uddeso anṇassa khamdam evam samghāļiteņhim tehim ekkārasa amgāņi samghātitāņi diţthivādo natthi
nepālavattani bhayavam bhaddabāhus sāmi acchati codda sa puvvi
6. Sthaviravali Charita or Parisishţaparvan. Being an Appendix of
the Trishashtigalaka Purusha Charita by Hemachandra. Edited by Hermann
Jacobi, Ph. D., Published for the Bibliotheca Indica. Calcutta: Printed at the Baptist Mission Press and published by the Asiatic Society. 1891.))
7. Modern Review, 1915, pp. 519-22.)
8. Pratipaditya Nepal, The Art of Nepal. Los Angeles County Museum
of Art in association with University of California Press, Berkeley, Los
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Angeles, and London. 1985. Among i nauspicious symbols listed in the caption to the illustration are "... owl, rooster, donkey, deer, naked Jain mendicant, alligator, snake, and Saiva Kapalika." 9. Sylvain Levi: The History of Nepal. Part. I. Edited and translated by Theodore Riccardi, Jr. Kailash: A Journal of Himalayan Studies, Vol. III, No. 1, 1975. P.46 f. 10. Levi's reading of the inscription is as follows: . 1. (samvalt 400 2 (11) rajnan crI manadevasaya samyak palayato mahim (1) asadhacuklasya tithau pancadacyam cubhartthina (1) 2. vanijan sart thavanena Guhamitrena bhaktitan (1) samsthapito tra bhagavan Indro nama di vakaran (2) ksetram yathagumpadcum-pradece 3. fatasya bhumih pingaka mani ca Gnoli and Vajracarya are in general agreement with the translation. Vajracarya has variants in his reading of the text. (See Licchavikalaka Abhilekha.- By Dhanavajra Vajracarya. Nepal ra Esyal I Adhyayan Samsthan. Tribhuvan Visvavidyalaya. Kalamand I nepal. 11. A. K. Chatterjee, A Comprebensive History of Jainism, Vol.I. Firma KLM Private Limited. Calcutta. 1978. P.300.G