Study of Tattvarthasutra with Bhasya

SR No.: 001578
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Suzuko Ohira
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1982
Total Pages: 196
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Tattvartha Sutra, Philosophy, Tattvartha Sutra, & Tattvarth
File Size: 13 MB

Page 137

Scc. 4. HISTORICAL POSITION OF THE 7. S.
under the suzerains of the Guptas, and the South was completely outside the hand of the Gupta empire. Ujjain, Valabhi, Kānchi, Madura, etc., were well known for the tben commercial centres; and Surat in Gujarat and Mangalore in Mysore were famous for the international trades with Egypt, Rome, China and Southeast Asian countries during this period; also Kolar gold mine in Mysore is suspected to have been exploited around this time. The internal trade routes for caravans bad been well developed by this tim, and the overland route through Ujjain, Paithan, Tamil land to Kashi, and the sea routes between Surāştra and Madură were well known.75 It is not at all surprising therefore that the lay Jainas at Mathura who were well acquainted with these business worlds chose, guided by their keen business sense, and migrated to these promising trade centres as their futur ehomelands.
It is evident from Mathurā inscriptions wherein lay doners inscribed the names of their preceptors along with their gaņa, kula, etc., that the laymen or lay communities were under the guidance of the particular spiritual teachers. In another word, monks came to have stood by this time for the lay Jainas as their spiritual guides, who in turn depended for their material needs on the lay communities. Corroborating this fact, Katugumalai hill inscription of the 2nd to the 1st century B. C. records that the Jaina merchants donated monasteries to a Jaina monk. The canonical texts themselves which prescribe the householders' duties attest this strong tie-up of the lay and the ascetic sanghas in those days. Where the ascetic sanghas moved, there they were likely followed by the lay votaries in the earlier period. However the migrated Jainas, both lay and ascetic, from Mathurā in the Gupta age chose the commercial cities for their future homelands. This alludes to the fact that the lay communities invited their preceptors for their spiritual guidance after their migration and that the ascetic sanghas which could not go without their support welcomed it and joined them.
The Jaina antiquities under the dominion of the Gupta empire mostly consist of the images of Jinas inasmuch as Mathurā antiquities of the Jainas in the Kusban age do. This implies that the doners were mostly the wealthy merchants who likely constructed temples at the sites of their finds. The Jaina emigrants to the West did not seem to have enjoyed an imperial support at their beginning stage. On the contrary, those migrated to the South were backed up by the rulers as the early Southern inscriptions of the 4-6th centuries attest. This alludes to the fact that these migrated Jainas who previously enjoyed the highly organized corporate life at Mathura and were well acquainted with the know-how in organizing business communities immediately commenced to invite the royal favour in order to settle down in these new places. The total absence of the record of an image donation in the epigraphical sources indicates that they did not yet possess or just began to construct their own temipes which functioned as the centres for community activities. Lands granted by kings were free of taxes. Therefore, for the sake of establishing a community centre
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