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Development & Impact of Jainism in India & Abroad
also the vast powerful Bengal soldiers. The Greek historians suggest that Alexander retreated ,fearing valiant attacks of the mighty Gangaridai and Prasoi empires, which were located in the Bengal region. Alexander's Historians refer to Gangaridai as a people who lived in the lower Ganges and its tributaries. He describes Gangaridai as a nation beyond the Ganges, whose king had four thousand wars trained and equipped elephants. Later Periplus and Ptolemy also indicate that Bengal was organised into a powerful kingdom at the onset of the first millennium AD.
A Jina statue of Mauryan dynasty was found at Chandraketugarh of 24 Paraganas, 38 kilometers away from Kolkata. Sri Gauri Shankar Dey emphatically said that there is a similarity between the statue of Chandraketugarh and the statue of Lohanipur of Mauryan Dynasty. Both the literary and archeological evidences indicate that Bengal had an early association with Jainism. Jainism flourished in Bengal long before the Christian era and continued in its full form at least upto the 7th century A.D. yet in this connection the torso of a Tirthankara found in the ruins of Chandraketugarh, a well known archeological site of West Bengal, deserves special mention. It has the closet resemblance with the Lohanipur Torso, represents the oldest Jaina image extant in Bengal.
It is described in the Jaina literature that king Kiraat of Kotivarsha of Bengal visited Bhagwan Mahavir and was initiated.towards Mahavira's order The famous historian Ptolemy also mentioned about the people of Kiraat. He denoted the Kiraat people as the most ancient evenly settled community of Bengal. They were also large in number. There is a temple of Kiraatbagh and Dadabari at Jiyagunj of Murshidabad in Bengal. This was initially situated at Azimgunj. Due to the flow of water of Ganga, a part of it drowned into the water and the rest part headed towards Jiyagunj. Till today it is known as the Temple of Kiraatbagh to maintain its old identity. Similarly, in the descriptions of the royal family of Kadi, the earlier name of Azimgunj was Jineswar Dihi, which was popular as a pilgrimage spot. In this region, the temple of Kiriteshwar is situated near Azimgunj. Dahapara is located at the western bank of Bhagirathi, in the opposite direction of the Murshidabad city. In the ancient times, this city was decorated with many palaces. Moreover, this was under the capital city of Murshidabad. A village named Kiritkonn is located 14 miles away in the western direction from here; which was in fact Tirathkonn. In this way, Karna Suvarna was pronounced as Kana Sona, Kiritkonn as Tirathkonn. Today vast forest and remains of many ancient temples are found here. This symbolizes the ancient fame, pride and golden memory of Kiraat people. Two more temples were built near the main temple where Tirthankar statue is worshipped as Bhairav. The name of the God Kiriteswar has been written as Vimala in the Tantra Churamaini Pith Nirnay. Actually, this temple was not of Vimala, but it was the temple of the 13th Tirthankara, Vimalnath. The meaning of kimi is Varha, which is the blemish of Tirthankara Sri Vimalnath Swami. The temple remained unaffected till Gupta Period. The main sculpture of the temple was destroyed after the increase of superiority of the Brahmanas. Gradually, during the reign of Sasanka in the 7th century, the Jains has to retreat from this region. At that time, this holy spot came under the direct control of the Brahmanas. The Jain idols are worshipped in the form of Goddesses and Bhairav in different parts of Bengal till today.
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