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RELIGION
a means of popularising Jainism and organised it on a national scale".1 The evidence provided in the NC. supports the same fact and it is clear that the custom of taking out the images of Arhats was practically carried out during these centuries.
The custom of rahajatta, also known as aṇujāņa ( anuyāna ),2 prevailed among the Jainas even in the time of the Mauryan king Samprati." It is stated that very enthusiastically he (Samprati) participated in this festival, roamed about the whole city with procession along with his servants and officials and also asked the vassal kings to observe the ceremony of rahajatta in their respective kingdoms as a sign of his tutelage.* It was from the time of Samprati that this custom was made popular in various regions like Andhra, Tamila, Kuduk ka and Mahārāṣṭra, and carried down to the later centuries.
Pilgrimage
The ideal of pilgrimage was common to all the religions, although unlike the Brahmanic version of the word, the Jaina philosophers define tirtha as a place which shows the way to cross the ocean of Samsara.5
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Visit to the various places related to the life history of the Tirthankaras was considered to be the means of purifying the vision and acquiring Right Faith in religion (damsaṇa-suddhi)." As such all the places where Tirthankaras were born (jammana), where they renounced the world and got initiated into the ascetic life (nikkhamana), where they roamed abou
1. Majumdar, A. K., Chaulukyas of Gujarat, p. 321.
2. अणुजाणं रहजत्ता -- NC 4, p. 131; Brh Vr. 2, p. 522.
3. NC. 4, p. 131.
4. Ibid.
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5. Sangave, op. cit., p. 270. The Brahmana practice of taking bath in the tirthas for the purification of sins has been highly criticised by the Jaina philosophers. See-Viseṣāvasyaka Bhāṣya, 1026-27; also Paumacariya, 22. 85. 6. NC. 3, p. 24.
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