History of Jaina Monachism

SR No.: 001727
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S B Deo
Publisher: Deccan College Research Institute
Publication Year: 1956
Total Pages: 616
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Principle, & History
File Size: 12 MB

Page 100

HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
95
Náydd in Kalingof the
(v) Another point to be noted is regarding the Jina-image. On the evidence of this inscription, we may say that image worship—which has been referred to in one of the Angas (Nāyādhammao207) regarding the worship of Jiņapadimā by Dovaī—was prevalent in Kalinga as well as in Magadha right from the Nandas who were the predecessors of the Mauryas. It means, therefore, that Jainism must have been in a flourishing condition there in pre-Mauryan times, and was possibly introduced there by Mahāvīra himself, as the Jaina texts refer to his visits to Tosalī, as we have seen elsewhere.
(iv) Khāravela's defeat of Basahati-mitta (=Pusyamitra,) 208 tends to suggest that the former tried to check the reviving Brāhmanical influence in Magadha.
(vii) If we take the reading of JAYASWAL and BANERJI to be corl'ect,209 then, line fourteen may be said to refer to the distribution of white clothes to the monks. Then, in this case, one may say that it tends to show the existence of the Svetārbara monks in Kalinga in about the second century B.C., if not earlier.
(viii) Another interesting reference is that where the inscription refers to 'kāya-nisīdīyāya yāpa-ñāvakehi .......210
In this connection, it would be better to quote JAYASWAL,211 as this line according to him "gives information of highest importance to history". He says
"Yāpa-ñāvakas (Skt. Yāpa-jñāpakas) 'the teachers of yāpa', cannot be identified without reference to the history of Jainism. The Bhadrabāhucarita in giving the history of Jainism immediately after the teacher Bhadrabāhu, a contemporary of Candragupta, says that amongst the numerous disciples of Bhadrabāhu who worshipped the bones of their master a school called Yāpana-Sangha arose and that they finally decided to remain without clothes. The Yāpana-sangha flourished in the south as they prominently appear in Carnatic inscriptions.212 They are now extinct. Muni
207. See Chapt. XVI. 208. SMITH, JRAS., 1918, p. 545; RAYCHAUDHARI, op. cit., pp. 373ff. 209. Op. cit., p. 89. 210. Ibid., p. 80.
211. JBORS., Vol. IV, pp. 338-90; see also Ibid., Vol. XIII, p. 233 for changes in the reading of the line. This, however, does not alter these two phrases under discussion
212. See I.A., VI, pp. 24-27; VII, pp. 33-35; XVIII, p. 309; XII, p. 11; E.I., IX, No. 6; JA., IX, ii, p. 69; E.I., XVIII, p. 177; see UPADHYE's article on the Yapaniyas in BUJ, Vol. 1, pt. VI, May 1933, pp. 224-231; MORAES, Kadamba Kula, p. 252.