Jainism in North India

SR No.: 011067
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Chimanlal J Shah
Publisher: Longmans Green and Compny London
Publication Year: 1932
Total Pages: 66
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 3 MB

Page 103

JAINISM IN NORTH INDIA Thus" of the seven caves, two in the Barabar Hill and three in the Nagarjuni Hill mention the grant of those caves to the Ajivikas' (Azivikehi). In three cases the word Arivikehi bad been deliberately chiselled off, every other letter entirely untouched "1 It is really difficult to say who could have done this, but we know for certain that after King Dasaratha the Barabar Hills passed into the hands of the Jaina king, Kharavela He was at Gorathagiri in the eighth year of his reign-i.e. just after the Asoka-Dasaratha time. On epigraphic grounds also this can be ascertained by the remarkable facade of the Lomasa Rsi Cave 2 As a pious Jaina, Kharavela might have "attempted to wipe off old scores by obliterating the hated name of the impostor Gosala's Ajivika followers." 3 Writing on this Jaina-Ajivika hostility in the domain of archeology Mr Mookerji observes. "The last two Asokan inscriptions in the Barabar caves, as shown here, and the three Nagarjuni inscriptions of Dasaratha mention in common the grant of these caves to the Ajivikas, but in three of these inscriptions there is detected an attempt to chisel away the word ' Azivilcehi,' as if the name of this sect was not tolerated by somebody who was at such pains to wipe it off. Now, who was this somebody! Hultzsch conjectures it might have been the Mankhari Anantavarman, who assigned one of the Barabar caves to Krshna, and two of the Nagarjuni caves to Siva and Parvati, and whose orthodox Hindu leaning did not favour the Ajivikas. Dr Banerji Sastri puts forward a more convincing conjecture. He fastens the mischief on Kharavela, a Jaina, with the traditional hostility of his community to the Ajivikas, a mischief that was thus committed much earlier than the times of Mankhari, when the Asokan Brahmi-Lapi was well-nigh forgotten "4 aves." The lastd the three Nase these 1 Sastr (Banerji), op cit, p 59 Zind, p 60 Cf also "A companson of the two sites leaves hardly a doubt that the Gordhagiri facade and inscription are intimately connected with the Udayagiri (Khira cla) inscriptions and facades, both done by a Jama who signed his creed in the mutilation of the letters. Ajivikehi"--Iord , p 61 Iind, p 60 " He (Khura cla) naturally turned out the Ajivikas, chiselled off their names and put i hus Kolipran troops in the Barabar Caves The unfinished LOTUS Rsi he must have found quite handv. In any case Khiravelo seems to have employed Post-Muryan craftsmen to polish up the walls"-Sastri (Banert). J BORS,XI, 310 Mookerji (Radhnkumud), on atp 206 "Hultzschi's view is tintenable (1) assumes without assivhing any reason that Anantavatman in the oth-7th century ADW familiar with Asohn-Bruhmi of the 3rd century BC "-Sastri (Banerji), op cil, p by The second reason put forward by the corned scholars that Anantavarman, lunect being 66