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S. B. DEO
Coming to the historical period, we may not be wrong in supposing that "the first wave of Jainism passed over Gujarat-Kathiawad when Bhadrabahu went to the south in the 4th cent. B.C."297 We have, however, no literary or epigraphic evidence to corroborate the statement.
A more definite proof of the Jaina contact with Gujarat can be had in the Junagadh inscription of the grandson of Jayadāman,298 the Kşatrapa ruler, which refers to 'Kevalajnăna', a purely Jaina technical term signifying omniscience. Along with this, in the Bāwā Pyārā caves at Junāgadh we find Jaina symbols like the Swastika, Bhadrāsana, Nandipada, Minayugala and others which resemble with those found on the āyāgapatas at the Jaina Stupa at Mathurā.299
Another indication of the early Jaina settlements in Käthiāwād is evidenced by the Jina images found at Dhank in Gondal State. Scholars have identified them with the figures of Adinātha, śāntinātha, Pārsvanatha and Mahāvīra. These Tirthankaras are endowed with their lāñchanas and Śāsanadevīs.300 The images are naked. SANKALIA remarks in this connection, "Do they therefore belong to the Digambara sect or to the time before which the differentiation between the sects was not so rigid, about 300 A.D., a period which is suggested by the period of the sculptures?"'301
Coming to the early medieval period we have scanty evidence to study the state of Jainism in Gujarāt. But it may be noted that the Gujarāt branch of the Pratihăras had two kings named Jayabhatta and Dadda whose titles vītarāga and praśāntarāga betray traces of Jaina influence. Even though it would be wrong to suppose that they were Jainas--for they were devotees of Surya, these titles which are exclusively applied more or less to the Jaina Tirthankaras, show that these kings must have been influenced by Jainism to some extent, or that the local Jaina community may have conferred these titles on the benevolent kings.
Unfortunately no archaeological information under the Gujarāt Cālukyas regarding the prevalence of Jainism is available, while under the Rāstrakūtas of Gujarät, the existence of Jainism is evidenced by the Rāştrakūța copper-plate of A.D. 821 falling under the reign of Karkarāja Suvar
297. SANKALIA, Archaeology of Gujarat, p. 233. 298. E.I., XVI, p. 239; the exact wording is ‘kevalijñāna samprāptānām'.
299. BURGESS, Antiquities of Kacch and Kathiawad, pl. xviii, fig. 3; SMITH, ASI, XX, pl. xi.
300. For details about iconography, see SANKALIA, op. cit., pp. 166-67, 301. Ibid., p. 167.
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