Unknown Pilgrims

SR No.: 007014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 820
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 211

The Followers of the Ever Growing One
191
It was in 1089 that there was born in the region of Ahmadābād, present-day capital of Gujarāta, the one who, when he became Acārya Hemạcandra, was destined to be, after Haribhadra Sūri, one of the great Masters of the Svetāmbaras. He was deeply versed in every department of learning and trained a number of disciples, taking an important part the while in the religious, cultural and political life of his time. His influence at the court where he taught was striking and two successive kings, Jayasimha and Kumārapāla, were not only welldisposed and tolerant towards the dharma, but evidenced great interest in its teaching. Kumārapāla actually embraced the Jaina faith and his kingdom became a place where ahiṁsā was respected, hunting and the slaughter of animals, as well as meat-eating and the consumption of liquor, being prohibited. This influence exercised by Jainism has continued even to our own day and Gujarāta, on the whole, is a vegetarian state. Under Kumārapāla, religious and literary activity knew a fresh vigour, the king had numerous temples built, of which several were dedicated to the tirthankaras.159 This era of great Jaina prosperity lasted in this region from the XIth to the XIIIth century. 160
In order to elucidate certain aspects of life in Gujarāta, the position occupied by Jainism in the society of that day and thus the conditions of life of the sădhvis, we must go back to the age of the first editions of commentaries upon the Agamas, that is to say, to the early Middle
159 Cf. ibid., pp. 26-29; Deo, 1956, pp. 112-113; Winternitz, 1977, pp. 482483.
160 "The centuries between the eleventh and thirteenth were never to be excelled as regards the intensity of impact of Jainism in the Maru-Gujara country. To the birth, gorwth and development of the Maru-Gujara civilization, Jainism substantially contributed, just as it played a very decisive and directive role in the former's consolidation. Not only did the literary activity of the Jainas then see its high water-mark; the art and architecture patronized by and created for the Jaina creed also reached their culmination. Over three hundred Jaina temples were built during this period in western India, though most of them, particularly those in the capital cities and in provincial, commercial and sea-port towns, were destroyed during Muslim invasion and occupation, and the materials taken from the ravaged Jaina shrines-pillars and decorated ceilings - were largely used in the interior construction of the mosques of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries." Sompura & Dhaky, 1975, p. 13.