Jain Journal 1987 01

SR No.: 520085
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1987
Total Pages: 40
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

Page 20

JANUARY, 1987
society, notably to the more numerous mercantile class of Vaisyas. In Gujarat where Jainism was influential, the Jainas of the merchant class played a prominent role in the middle ages. A Jaina called Vira was the superintendent and minister of four successive rulers Mularaja, Camundaraya, Vallabharaya and Durlabharaya at the close of the tenth century and beginning of the eleventh. His son Vimala was the commander-inchief of Bhima I and built in 1031 the famous Vimalavasahi temple with its exquisite marble carvings on Mt. Abu. In the thirteenth century Vastupala served the Vaghela rulers as their chief-minister, and was a great patron of learning.3
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0.3 Aside from these instances of political power, commerce was the exclusive forte of the Jainas, and much of the economic activity in the Gujarat-Rajasthan-Delhi region was controlled by them. The members of the Srimala caste, in particular, specialised in minting and moneyexchange. Even after the political domination of northern India by Muslims from the thirteenth century onwards, the expertise represented by this banker's caste was utilised by the Mulsim rulers of Delhi in their minting operations, just as Hindu and Jaina masons and stone-carvers were employed in the construction of the Islamic monuments. The Kharatara chronicle mentions a number of wealthy Jainas from Delhi who enjoyed good relations with the rulers.
1.0 Notable among these members of the Srimala caste in the employment of the Sultans of Delhi is Thakkura Pheru who stands out as a writer on a wide range of scientific subjects in popular speech. He wrote six scientific works: Vastusāra on architecture and iconography, Jyotiṣasara on astrology and astronomy, Ratnapariksa on gemmology, Gaṇitasära on arithmetic, Dhatutpatti on metallurgy and perfumery trade, and Dravyaparikṣā on assay and money-exchange. 5
2 Cf. U. P. Shah, "Coinage of Early Calukyas of Anhillavada-Patan", Journal of the Numismatic Society of India, XVI. 2 (1954), pp. 239-42.
Cf. B. J. Sandesera, Literary Circle of Mahamatya Vastupala, Bombay 1953.
4 Cf. John Scott Deyell, Living Without Silver: The Monetary History of Early Medieval India (The University of Wisconsin-Madison Ph. D. Thesis, 1982. Xerography in 1983 by the University Microfilms International, Ann Arbour), Vol. I, p. 339. 5 All Pheru's works are published in the Thakkura-Pheru-Viracita-RatnapariksadiSaptagranthasamgraha, ed. Muni Jinavijaya, Jodhpur 1961. For other editions of the individual texts, see my Thakkura Pheru's Rayanaparikkha: A Medieval Prakrit Text on Gemmology, Aligarh 1984.