Gommateshvara Commemoration Volume

Author(s): T G Kalghatgi
Publisher: Parshwanath Shodhpith Varanasi

Page 32

Jainism and Karnataka
15 very brave and potentially powerful modern experiment in the ancient Hindu science.?
Ahimsā is not negative in content. It is not mere non-injury; it expresses love and compassion. The practice of ahiṁsā is not for the sake of others, but for saving our own selves.
II. We may consider the impact of Jainism on the culture of Karnataka. History of Karnataka is intimately connected with the history and development of Jainism in this part of the country. Jainism is a way of life which has permeated the life-pulse of the people of Karnataka for over two thousand years.
The Jaina poet Ngpatunga, in the 9th century A.D., described the expanse of Karnataka as the Country extending from the river Godāvari to Kāveri, and the land with people skilled in the art of making speeches and well versed in poetry
The impact of Jainism as religion and philosophy may be considered from two aspects. (1) Political influence and royal patronage and (2) Its influence on the life and philosophy of the people of Karnataka.
Exactly when Jainism came to the south, specially to Karnataka, is difficult to say. There is a tradition in Jainism which says that the land was ruled by Jivandhara in the 6th century B. C., who was himself a Jaina and who met Mahāvira when he came down to the south. Mahāvira gave Dikşä to him, and the King became an ascetic
(1) Apart from this tradition it is fairly certain that Jainism entered Karnataka well before the Christian era. Jainism came down to the south with Bhadrabāhu Svāmin, last of the Six Śrutakevalins. He reached, by stages a Country filled with happy people". He was accompanied by Candragupta, the Maurya. Bhadrabāhu Svāmin practised Svamlekhanā on the mount Candragiri in 297 B.C.". This was the beginning of the influence of Jainism in the south. Samprati, the grandson of Ashoka, was himself a Jaina in his earlier days. He sent missionaries to the south. For nearly 12 hundred years, from the 2nd century A. D., to 13th century A. D., Jainism played an important part in the social and political life of the people. It influenced the lives of the princes and the people alike. The earliest political influence of Jaina Dharma is evidenced by the establishment of a Jaina Kingdom in the south. Sometime in the 3rd century A.D., two princes of the Ganga family came to the city of Perur in the south. Ācārya Simhanandi initiated one of them in the Syādvāda doctrine and Kongunivarma I established the Ganga dynasty with the blessings of the Ācārya. There were many Jainas in Karnataka at the time. The Gangas continued their patronage to the Jaina religion. The Ganga monarchs, except in a few cases, gave royal