Jainism in Kalingadesa

SR No.: 011066
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bool Chand
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society
Total Pages: 21
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 2 MB

Page 5

: JAINISM IN KALINGADESA What is Kalinga ?
Pt. Nilkanth Das is of the view that the kingdom'. of Kalinga extended ordinarily from Tamluk to midGanjam on the sea-coast. The Ganges was its northern boundary, forests beyond mid-Ganjam extended to the South, the Indian Ocean was on the east. The western boundary was, however, uncertain. At times... it may have extended upto the Amarkantaka range in upper C. P. and included the ancient South Kosala or Mahakosal kingdom within its territories.
No reference to Kalinga is to be found in Vedic literature, although an attempt is occasionally made. to include Kalinga among the kingdoms of the South, the rulers of which are described in Aitareya Brahmana as assuming the title 'Bhoja'. In the Mahabharata there is specific mention of Kalinga as a 'forest kingdom with its ruler Chitrangada. The Arthashastra refers · to Kalinga in connection with a special kind of cotton : fabric. It is a doubtful question whether Kalinga was a kingdom of the Aryavarta; as late as the DharmaSutra of Bodhayana the countries beyond the territories included between the Indus and the Yamuna are spoken' of as mlechcha-desa, where no arrangement or regulation exists with regard to women. In the Sutra itself it isa Stated that whoever goes to Kalinga commits sin with, his feet and must perform the Vaisvanariya-Iști. From the study of the Sutra literature, Prof. R. D. Banerji concludes that the “people of Eastern Bengal, Northern Bengal and Kalinga were regarded in the time of the Sutras as being altogether out of the pale of Aryan civilization and among them the people of Kalinga obtained a slight preference. So, whilc the people of Bengal were regarded as untouchables and were not spoken to or touched by the Aryans, the people of Kalinga were not so. We have no means to deter
1 See Journal of Andhra Historical Research Society II, 12. . ? See J. A. H. R. S. II, 1.