Jaina Art and Architecture Vol 01

SR No.: 011012
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A Ghosh
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith
Publication Year: 1974
Total Pages: 345
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 105

CHAPTER 7
EAST INDIA
BIHAR
OF ALL REGIONS, BIHAR WAS THE EARLIEST STRONGHOLD OF JAINTSM. Many of its villages and towns were graced by the presence of Mabăvira, the capitals and important towns of three of the east-Indian Mahă-janapadas, namely Voji, Magadha and Anga, being particularly associated with him. The Vrjian confederacy comprised eight or nine clans including the Licchavis and the Videhas. Vaisali, the capital of the Licchavis, was the native town of Mahāvira, as he was born at Kundagrāma, a suburb of the capital. His mother was a sister (according to another tradition daughter) of the Licchavi chief Cetaka. Mahävira, in the course of his wanderings, spent a large number of rainy seasons at Vaisalt and its suburb Vāpijyagrāma, and for six rainy seasons he was at Mithilā, the capital of Videha. Räjagtha, the capital of Magadha, was also a favourite varsdyasa of Mahāvira: here and in its neighbouring village of Nalanda, he spent as many as fourteen varsds or rainy seasons. According to the Jaina tradition, king Sreņika-Bimbisāra, who had married Cellanā, a daughter of Cetaka of Vajšali, and his son KönikaAjātaśatru were devoted to him, Campa, the capital of Anga, which was annexed to the Magadhan empire by Bimbisára, was also a favourite resort of Mahavira.
Jainism continued to receive royal patronage in cast India even after the death of Mahåvira. Thus, when Udayabhadra, the successor of Ajātaśatru and a devout Jaina, ascended the throne of Magadha, which by this time had incorporated into itself the Licchavi principality, he built a Jaina shrine in the newly-founded capital of Pataliputra. Later on, the Nandas also were favourably disposed towards Jainism and their ministers were Jainas. According to late Jaina traditions, Candragupta Maurya, who brought to an end the rule of the Nandas, came under the influence of Jainism in his last days and left his capital Pataliputra, along with monk Bhadrabahu and a large
* The Age of Imperial Untty, ed. R.C. Majumdar and A.D. Prsalker, Bombay, 1960,
R 29.