Jain Journal 1975 01

SR No.: 520037
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1975
Total Pages: 36
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 2 MB

Page 18

Jaina Temples in East Bengal in the Seventeenth Century
D. C. SIRKAR
The late Jainologist Sri Puran Chand Nahar published the texts of as many as 2592 inscriptions collected from different parts of India in his well-known work entitled Jaina Inscriptions (Jaina Lekha Samgraha) in three volumes published from Calcutta respectively in 1918, 1927 and 1929. Even though the presentation of the transcripts of the epigraphic records in the volumes is not quite satisfactory in all respects, they are a valuable contribution to Jaina epigraphy and we are extremely thankful to the author for the great energy he exhibited in collecting the material especially in view of the fact that some of the records do not appear to be traceable at present.
The inscriptions generally record erection of temples and installation of the images of Tirthankaras, their foot-prints, etc., by members of the mercantile community. They are usually dated and often bear the names of the Digambara or Svetambara religious leaders who performed the ceremony of installation of an image or consecration of a temple. Occasionally the inscriptions mention the names of the places where the temples were built or images installed and sometimes the names of the rulers in whose territories the places were situated.
Even though they are mediaeval private records, some of these inscriptions have been found to be of considerable importance. This can be illustrated by an instance.. A place called Kakandi or Kakandinagari is famous in both Buddhist and Jaina traditions. The Buddhists regarded it as the home of an ancient sage named Kakanda while the Jainas considered the locality to have been the birth-place of the Tirthankara Suvidhinatha. The locality is also mentioned in the early inscriptions from Barhut. Unfortunately the place was not satisfactorily identified. B. C. Bhattacharya identified Kakandi with Kiskindhya of the Ramayana without noticing that Kiskindhya was in Karnataka far away from the activities of the early Jainas. B.C. Law, the well-known writer on early Indian geography, places Kakandi in Northern India and says that the place cannot be identified. The place was, however, actually in Eastern India and can be satisfactorily identified with the help of Inscription No. 173 at p. 41 of Vol. I of the Jaina Lekha Samgraha.