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A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF JAINISM
also refers to it. 16 This city was visited by both Fa-hien and Yuan Chwang. The Therāvalı refers to the Sankāśiyā sākhā under Cārana gana, i.e., Vāraņa gaña, established in the third century BC. This is definite evidence of Sankāsya's early association with the Nirgrantha religion.
It appears that the religion of Pārśva and Mahāvīra succeeded in penetrating north-western and western India at a quite early date. I had occasion to refer to the visit of Mahāvīra in Sindhu-Sauvīra, as described in the Bhagavatī, in a previous chapter. We now have definite evidence to show that even in pre-Christian times, Jainism became quite popular with the people of western India. A recently discovered inscription" from Pala, Pune district, Maharashtra, discloses the existence of a cave which was excavated by a monk (bhadamta) called Indrarakṣita. This inscription has been assigned, on palaeographical grounds, to the second century BC. It begins with the typical Jaina expression namo aramhātānam. We further learn from it that Indrarakṣita also constructed a reservoir (podhi) of water. Let us not forget that, according to the Jainas, the twentysecond Tīrthařkara, Neminātha or Arișganemi was born in western India. The earliest source that gives a glimpse of his life is the Ņāyādhammakahāo, which was not improbably composed by 300 BC. I have alredy said that with the exception of Pārsva, no other Tīrthamkara before Mahāvīra, can be called historical figures. But the idea of Tirthamkara was, as with the idea of previous Buddhas, developed within a century of the demise of Vardhamāna. 18 In making Neminātha their twenty-second Tirthamkara, the Jainas have very ingeniously used the contemporary Vaisnava tradition current in western India, regarding the Yādavas and Väsudeva-Krsna.
It is extremely significant that the Theravali refers to a sākhā called Saurāștriyā (Prāksta Sorațțhiya) which originated from Rsigupta, a disciple of Suhastin, who flourished in the third century BC. This definitely proves that Saurāstra had received its first dose of Jainism in the Mauryan period. The inscription from Pāla, referred to above, shows that Jainism became popular in other centres of western India before the second century BC. It is interesting to note that the inscription, in question, does not give us any idea regarding the gana, kula or sākhā of Indraraksita, and in this his position is similar to that of the monk Māgharakṣita of the Mathurā inscription of c. 150 Bc. But unlike the latter, the monk Indrarakṣita himself takes the initiative for construction of a cave, for which he apparently did
