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 218

The Unknown Pilgrims
A
The epoch described in the Nisitha-cūrṇi was renowned for its intellectual activity and many munis not only studied well their own doctrine but also that of the sects of other dharmas so as to be able to defend their own in debate. They learned much by listening to the masters and the ācāryas were chosen, not on grounds of age or family background, but on account of their spiritual maturity. They were required to transmit the doctrine to disciples capable and worthy of receiving it, without distinction of caste. One can imagine that in such an atmosphere the sãdhvis also were encouraged to study and were able to profit by the teaching of these same masters or their disciples. 177
198
b) The Sūrataśākhā and the Iḍaraśākhā
Among the Bhaṭṭārakas are found texts and inscriptions dating from the middle of the XVth century to the beginning of the XVIIth, with references to āryikās belonging to the Sūrataśākhā, of Sūrata in the South-East of Gujarata, and to the Iḍaraśākhā, of Iḍara in the North of the same province. These two śākhās were branches of the Balātkāragaṇa.
The following references are taken from the Sūrataśākhā:
-At Ghogha, on the tenth day of the bright fortnight of vaiśākhā (April-May) of samvat 1513 (1437), Śri Vidyanandi, disciple of Acarya Śri Devendrakirti, had a caubisimurti erected for Aryikā Samyama Śri. 178 This murti is a type of image peculiar to Jaina art: it consists in the image of a tirthankara carved out of a block, in which it occupies a central position and is surrounded by sculptures in miniature of the twenty-three other tirthankaras. 179
-At Sürata there is a statue of kṣullika Jinamati with a mālā (rosary) in her right hand and the picchikā (small broom of peacock-feathers)
177 Ibid. ch. VI.
178 BhattSamp, No 429; pp. 170; 194. Ghogha is on the West coast. One is led to suppose that Arjikä Samyama Śri was contemporaneous with Bhaṭṭāraka Vidyānandi.
179 Cf. U.P. Shah, 1955; fig. 37.