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JAINISM IN NORTH INDIA (200 BC-AD 600)
not receive any financial support from his lay disciples.
Another small inscription 19 from Girnar, Gujarat, bearing the date 58 refers to Pañcanacandamurti. The date has been ascribed to the Vikrama era 58. I have not however been able to examine the palaeography of this inscription, and therefore no conclusion is desirable on the basis of it alone. However, since the Nāyādhammakahāo and other canonical texts associate Girnar (Ujjimta or Ujjamta) with Arişṭanemi, we need not be surprised to find a first century inscription on this hill. The Kalpasūtra50 also associates Neminatha or Ariṣṭanemi with the hill, and these literary references also constitute evidence of the early association of Gujarat with Jainism.
No early Jaina inscription has so far been discovered from northwest India, but we have strong reasons to believe that there were quite a few Jaina pockets in that part of India. The ancient city of Kāpiśī, which was visited by Yuan Chwang in the first half of the seventh century AD, and which has been identified with Opian in Afghanistan by Cunningham,51 had a sizeable Jaina population. It is clear therefore that Jainism penetrated this part of north-west India (the original Indian subcontinent which undoubtedly included the whole of Afghanistan) in the early centuries of the Christian era.
Another old city, Takṣaśilā, was associated with Jainism from early days. Sir John Marshall, who first carried out systematic excavations at Taxila, observes: 'Taxila must have been adorned by a vast number of Jaina edifices, some of which were no doubt, of considerable magnificence."52 According to Marshall, the shrines in blocks F and G in the excavated area of Sirkap were probably Jaina. The Jaina literary tradition" associates Takṣaśilā with Bahubali, a son of Rṣabha, who was believed to be a Jaina sadhu. We further learn from the Avasyakaniryukt and the Avasyakacurn that Bahubali had installed a jewelled dharma-cakra at Takṣaśila. The association of Bahubali with Takṣaśila is also mentioned in the Vividhatirthakalpa of Jinaprabha. Since Takṣaśilā was one of the greatest cities of ancient India, it is very natural that the Jainas should endeavour to extend the sphere of their influence in that city.
Simhapura, was another Jaina centre from early times. This place has been identified by Stein57 and Cunningham58 with modern Ketas in the Salt Range (Punjab, Pakistan). It was visited by Yuan Chwang who saw Śvetambara Jainas there. That Chinese pilgrim, however, gives a very distorted account of the religious practices of the Śvetämbaras. Now, according to the canonical texts, Sihapura (i.e.,
