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JAINISM IN NORTH INDIA (200 BC-AD 600)
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devotees of Guhanandin. It is apparent also from the same inscription that this Guhanandin lived at least a century before the date of this inscription. We learn that it was originally founded by šisyas and prašisyas of Guhanandin. Probably this vihāra was built some 50 years before the date of this copperplate. Guhanandin himself probably lived in the last quarter of the fourth century AD at Kāśī. In no Jaina inscription before this date do we come across a Brāhmaṇa Jaina devotee, although the canonical texts, as we have already noticed, mention quite a number of Brāhmaṇa converts. The Jaina vihāra referred to above, according to the inscription, was situated in the Nāgiratta mandala of Pundravardhana bhukti.
The expression Pañcastūpanikāya is to be found in the noncanonical literature of the Digambaras. The great Virasena, the famous author of the Dhavalā, and Jinasena, the author of the Adipurāņa, belonged to the Pancastūpanikāya sect. In Harișeņa's Brhatkathākośał00 we have an account of the founding of five stūpas (pañcastūpa) at Mathura. It is probable that the Digambara monks belonging to the Pancastūpa sect of Mathurā later sent a few of the members of their sect to different parts of India. It is also not unlikely that Vārāṇasi was the earliest seat of this particular sect. In any case, we have to regard the Pañcastūpanikāya sect as one of the earliest branches of the Digambara school. In south Indian inscriptions too we come across Pancastūpanikāya monks. The Paharpur inscription is therefore, indicative of the early popularity of the Digambara religion in Bengal. We have already noted that Bengal accepted Jainism long before any other state of India, and it appears that in the Gupta period the Digambaras succeeded in extending their sphere of influence in Bengal at the expense of the Svetāmbaras.
The inscription of early Gupta character near Son Bhandara cave at the ancient town of Rājagrha refers to a Jaina muni called Vairadeva who is given the epithet ācāryaratna. The lower half of a small naked Jina image can still be seen cut out of a rock close to the inscription. It has been suggested 102 that this Vairadeva is the same as Arya Vajra of the Avasyakaniryukti.103 Sten Konow suggested 104 that the cave referred to in the inscription was sculpted between the second and third centuries Ad. The expressions ācārya and muni probably show that it is a Digambara record, and in that case, the suggested identification of Vairadeva with vajra cannot be accepted. Besides, the Digambara invariably preferred Sanskrit to Prākrta in all their early records, and this is the case with both the Paharpur
