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 243

follow the so quickheadache JAINISM IN NORTH INDIA by the long struggle between Rome and Parthia which began in 53 B.C."1 It was also with one of these Saka rulers, known to us by the name Muranda, that the great Padalipta was closely connected. Muranda is known to us from the traditional literature of the Jainas as the ruler of Pataliputra, and Padalipta seems to have gained complete influence at his court 2 The great Acarya is said to have cured the king of the terrible headache he was suffering from. This incident is related by the Prabhavaka-Carita in the following words. "So quickly as Padalipta turns his first finger round the kneeJoint does the headache of King Muranda come to an end."3 However the Scythian (Saka) invaders of Bactria were succeeded by the Yuch-chi; and when, in the first century AD., the predominant tribe of the Yuch-chi, the Kushanas, extended their dominion in Turkestan and Bactria to North-West India, the Kushana Empire formed a connecting link between China and India, and provided the means of an intercourse which was fruitful in results. As the explorations of recent years have shown, an Indian culture, Indian languages and the Indian alphabets were established in Chinese Turkestan. Particularly, to repeat it once more, according to Mr N C. Mehta even Jaina subjects came to be painted in the cave-temples of Chinese Tu kestan, With this shadowy background of Indian history in general we shall now refer to the Mathura inscriptions, and examine the importance in connection with the Jaina church. The historical importance of these inscriptions cannot be better summed up than in the following words of Cunningham: "The information derived from these inscriptions is of the greatest value for the ancient history of India. The general purport of all of them is the same to record the gifts of certain individuals, for the bonour of their religion, and for the benefit of themselves and their parents. When the inscriptions are confined to this simple announcement they are of little importance, but as the donors in most of these Mathura records have added the name of the reigning kings, and the samur date at the time of the gift, they form in fact so many skeleton 1 Rapson, CHI,1,P 60 पाटलीपुर राजास्ति मुरराडो नाम स हतात:करणो नपः सूरेषोलस्म पादानो प्रणामळूरवास --Prabhavaka-Carita, Padalipla-Prabandha, v 44, 61C Samyahla-Saptali, V*: MAR, 1928, p 11, Jhaveri, op at, Int ,px Prabhavala-Canta, v 50 Cf Samyaktua-Saptali, F 62; DLAR, 1928, op and loc cut 194