Indian Antiquary Vol 02

SR No.: 032494
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 428
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

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264
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
of these two brothers, of their wives and sons, were erected. They appeared as the regents of the ten higher spheres, and as if in the act of looking at Kandapa, the founder of their family. The statues were represented riding on elephants, which animals are greatly venerated by the Jainas as well as by their predecessors the Bauddhas.* The high esteem enjoyed by these two brothers is also evident from statues of their wives having found a place in this temple, and from Teja pâla having erected a genealogical tree of his spouse Anupama Devi.† At the sides of this temple 52 cells had been arranged for the principal Jainas, and at the entrance to the temple there was a varandaka, or porch.‡
The nature of the testimonies on the propagation of the Jaina doctrine from Magadha to other parts of India suffers from two defects inseparable from them; firstly because they are very incomplete, and secondly because from the - religious opinions of the rulers of Indian countries no conclusion can be drawn as to the number of their subjects who professed the religion of the Jainas. This gap may safely be filled out by the statements about the present extension of this sect, because it is certain that it has won no new adherents in later times.
Magadha, or, according to modern terminology, Southern Bihar, the original country of the Jainas, is their principal seat.§ In Måla va there are also many Jainas; here they are split into many sects, they observe the fasts, and the law of ahinsa or non-injury to living beings very strictly, and are very active and honest. They engage chiefly in commerce here also. They agree with the Buddhists in calling the highest deity Adinâ tha; this
These ten spheres are probably in the nine higher egions of the gods and demigods, together with the highest, i. e. of the Jainas; on this see Colebrooke's Observations on the Jains, in his Misc. Essays, III. p. 221.
Namely inscription XVIII. 40 seqq. As. Res. XVI. p.
307.
Thus must no doubt be read for balanka.
§ This is particularly clear from Buchanan Hamilton's account, Trans. of the R. A. S. I. p. 585 se 1q. mentioned above, p. 261, note §.
Sir John Malcolm, A Memoir of Central India and Malwa, II. p. 162 seqq. To conclude from the contents, the dissertation of James Delamaine in Trans. of the R. As. S. I. p. 413 se1q. quoted above, p. 261, note §, refers also to Malava; this supposition is confirmed by the circumstance of its having been submitted by Sir John Malcolm to the Asiatic Society.
James Tod's The Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, I. p. 726: II. p. 734, &c. [Madras Ed. I. 622; II. 672.--ED.]
[SEPTEMBER, 1873.
is known to be also a name of Buddha, especially among the Nepalese. They prefer Pârvanatha, the penultimate Jina, to Ma hâvira the last.
In the west of the Aravali chain, or Mârwâr in the wider sense of this name, adherents of the sect which now engages our attention are not wanting; this remark applies especially to Jodhapura. On the other hand the Jaina religion maintained in Gujarât its old prominent position; there adherents of this sect live in most of the towns, and in the peninsula of this name there is scarcely a village which does not contain several Jainas. The sanctuary praised so much already in the Satrunjayamáhatmya, and situated on the mountain of the same name, has been in much later times also visited by devout pilgrims. This fact appears from three inscriptions preserved in the adjacent Palitana. The essential point of the second inscription is that Dasa Karmasa ha, who was a descendant of a Gana dharachandra or president of an assembly, and is zealously devoted to the Jaina doctrine, was by the liberality of the emperor Akbar, who is justly prais: 1 for his tolerance, placed in a position to again renovate and to embellish that sanctuary. The third inscription reports that the pious Tejap â la undertook in the year 1583 a pilgrimage to the sacred mountain Satrañjaya and richly endowed this sacred place.
After this review of the propagation of the Jainas in Hindostan I turn to the Dakhan.
In the wide region of the north-western Dakhani highland inhabited by the Ma hârâshtras or Marathâs, Brahmanism dominated so much that but few adherents of the sect in question would be induced either to
Edward Thornton's Gazetteer, &c. II. and the word Guzerat.
They are published under the following title: Inscriptions from Palitana. Communicated by Capt. LeGrand Jacob in the J. of the B. B. of the R. As. S. I. p. 56 seqq. The inscription communicated on p. 57 he translated only as an extract; the second, p. 59, by A. B. Orlebar with the help of Venayaka Shastree; it is dated Samvat 1637, or 1580, in the reign of the Emperor Akbar. The third inscription is translated by Bå! Gangadhar Shastri and dated Samvat 1650 or 1583. Akbar reigned from 1556 till 1605. The text of the two last inscriptions is printed on p. 94. [Though Lassen specks of the inscriptions as "in dem benachbarten Palitana," they are from Satruñjaya itself.-ED.]
According to the note of LeGrand Jacob in the J. of the B. B. of the R. As. S. I. p. 56, Palitana, Sametasikhara (on which see above, p. 260, note T), and Gininagara in the peninsula of Gujarât, with Mount Arbuda, and Chandragiri in the Himalayas, are the sacred localities most visited by the Jainas. [On Arbuda vide ante, p. 249.-ED.]