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A CULTURAL STUDY OF THE NISITHA CURNI
suit the changed social circumstances, could not have done away with its impact. Mention of the Brāhmanas as dhijjatil or dugunchiya ( condemned caste ) apparently shows the existing spirit of hatred and rivalry between the two. Besides frequent mentions of the inimical kings ( rayaduttha ), the unsafe political circumstances ( rayabhaya ), the conditions when the Jaina monks had to live in the guise of other sects ( paralimga-karana ),s the inimical regions ( pratyanika-kşetra !, * the kings compelling the Jaina monks to touch the feet of the Brāhmins or leave the country and the various spiritual practices and miracles ( abhicārakavasžkarana )5 resorted to by them to counteract the royal power, the tempered disputations (vivida ) with the heretics ( anyatžrthikas ), the attempts of killing the Jaina acārya, gana and gaccha clearly indicate the disturbed,? unsafe and critical circumstances through which the religion was passing and its votaries were struggling hard to maintain its supremacy over the royalty and the public even at the cost of their original teachings. Jainism gave place to the tenets of the rival sects within its own fold and adopted social manners and customs of the different regions of the country. It is this changed form of Jainism that is disclosed in the Nistha Cūrņi. But in the field of religion, changes take place slowly and gradually and are perceptible only after centuries. The divergence in Jainism that we see during this time must have, therefore, set in quite some time before and took its positive form during this period. With this perspective let us determine the state of Jainism during these centuries, its divergence from the prestine faith of Lord
1. NC. 2, p. 208. 2. NC. 2, p. 117. 3. NC. 2, pp. 325, 424. 4. NC. 2, p. 164. 5. NC. 1, p. 163. 6. NC. 2, p. 86. 7. NC. 1, p. 100.
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