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58 / Ganga Monarchy & Jainism
awakened rather late. Albeit, they did recover from the shock and assert their position and influence, timidly at first and boldly in the end. Yet, it should be said to their credit that they retained in full, the traditional intellectual vitality and continued to contribute to the spirit of tolerance and co-existence with non-violence, without loosing their identity and thriving amidst adversity. A comparative study of the action, the reaction and the interaction between Jainism and contemporary society will affirm this : "it cannot be denied that the Jainas fostered the principle of toleration more sincerely and at the same time more successfully than any other community in India" [Saletorė: 270). Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet; with their enoromous patience, Jains had their turn of
laughing in the last. 13.1 This monagraph opened with a reference to the adept
preceptor Simhanandi of the Gangas, and would be appropriate to sum up with a meaningful observation of an historian, in which he has underlined the relevance of Simhanandi's role in moulding the destiny of the Ganga dynasty: the fact that the Jains failed to produce successive leaders, who could so associate religion with politics as to bring both to the forefront simultaneously. It is not too much to suppose that had Jainism produced another Simhanandi, especially in the eigth and nineth century, when it was beset with insurmountable difficulties, the course of political events in southern, especially in western, India would have been changed. The great leaders whom Jainism gave to the country were mostly buried in their theological works; and their indifference to the material changes that took place around them, and particularly those relating to the rise of rival religious sects, was not a little responsible for the steady decline of Jainsim as a powerful element in the religious and political history of the land [Saletore: 271].
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