Parshvanath Vidyapith Swarna Jayanti Granth

SR No.: 012051
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sagarmal Jain, Ashok Kumar Singh
Publisher: Parshwanath Shodhpith Varanasi
Publication Year: 1994
Total Pages: 402
Language: Hindi, English
Classification: Smruti_Granth & Articles
File Size: 23 MB

Page 381

Ancient India and South-East Asia as known from
Jaina Sources Dr. M. S. Shukla*
The eastern littoral beyond the Ganges has long been a terra incognita to the Ancient World. How and when it became known to antiquity is a crucial subject for historical and geographical studies. Being situated to its south-east, the issue of this area has to be investigated in relation to India.
The ancient Jaina sources seem to have a significant bearing on the question. The South-East is noted as Suvarnabhūmi in Ancient India. The Jaina texts also take notice of the area with this appellation.
The classical Greek and Roman accounts', the periplus, the works of Promponius Male, Pliny, Ptolemy allude to Chryse, an area which the last mentioned authority notices as Chryse Chora and Chryse chersonesus. These are equivalents of Suvarnabhumi in all. But these notices do not carry us beyond the early centuries of Christian era indicating that trans-Gangetic area was unknown to the Western World before this time.
Several Indian works also focus on the first century of our era. The Milinda Panha, the Niddesa commentary, the Vālmiki Rāmāyana are some of the examples. These works take note of Suvarnabhūmi. From the combined testimony of Indian and Western sources it appears that the eastern littoral beyond the Ganges was widely known to the antiquity in the early first millennium A. D. The moot point yet is whether we can discover the time when the South-East came to be first known to the Ancients.
The Arthaśāstra? of Kautilya referring to products of economic importance enumerates Suvarnabhumi as the source of a variety of sandalwood. We get an indication of the way in which South-East was known in the later first millennium B. C. The Jaina literature also indicates that in this period the trans-Gangetic region formed a part of the known world.
The Uttarādhyayana Niryukti (Gāthā 20 ) alludes to Kalaka's travel to South-East. The author of Vihatkalpabhāşya ( Vibhāga 1 ) citing Vrhatkalpacūrņi