ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 04

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

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Kings of Magadha, the Nanda dynasty, the Maurya dynasty (Candragupta Maurya, Bindusara, Ashok and Samprati), Kharvel of Kalinga and Orissa patronized Jainism. So Jainism prospered as Candragupta and his son Bindusara were Jains and became Jain ascetics in their later life. Jainism was at its pinnacle during this period. Stories abound that king Nandivardhan (424BC) won the war against Kalinga and took away the idol of its most respected Lord Adinath to his capital, which was later, won and brought by Kh rvela. However the feminine of 12.5 years during 365-352 in entire Magadh did havoc to Jainism as a large number of Jain monks went to South with Bhadra B hu while SthulaBhadra and others stayed back in P tliputra. SthulaBhadra changed some of the Jain ethical practices of monks to face the famine. This period also saw Jainism assuming a pan India presence. Jainism became very popular in south as Nemin tha, 22nd tratha kara, is said to have traveled there and established it. Similarly Prsvan tha also is supposed to have traveled southwards from Vrasi. The fact that Bhadrab hu and over 7000 monks chose to go there also support existence of a number of Jains there. Also history of south is not well documented till later periods even though we find that Jainism being the most favoured and popular religion of that area till now mentioned in literature available. Signs of fissure and separation of Jains in two sects belonging to Sthulabahdra in east and Bhadra B hu in the south started. We also see Emperor Asoka patronizing Buddhism more than Jainism even though his grand father and father were Jains and practiced asceticism in their old age. Shifting of the Jain center from P tliputra to Ujjaini, Mathur and Vallabhi in east, north and west respectively and Sravanbelgola in south. Emperor Samprati and son of Emperor Asoka is said to have shifted his capital to Ujjaini affecting this shift of Jainism from P tliputra to Ujjaini. Starting of the writing of Jain canons as the monks were becoming weaker in their memory at P tliputra and later at Mathur but not completed. Jain kings become weaker and Vedic kings started to gain power. Perhaps division in Jain creed, non-availability of strong religious teachers and infighting in the ruling families are some of the causes for this situation.
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TIL 300BC - 200AD This is the period which saw decline of Maurya dynasty and rise of four dynasties namely Kh rvela (Jain) in North-East i.e. Kalinga; North-south path - Andhra; North West with Seleucus of Greece as the king and others in Deep South. Kh rvela developed Udaygiri and Khandgiri caves near Bhubaneshwar, with Jain inscriptions, temples and place of stay for Jain monks. He defeated most of the attacks by kings from other parts and extended his empire till Mathur and Ujjaini, which became important Jain centers. Jainism was also becoming popular in south due to the presence of a large number of monks there. It is said that Jain monks were seen in Greece (taken by Alexander the great at the specific request of his religious teacher Aristotle) and Rome during this period and even a tomb of Jain monk still exists in Greece. Thus during Alexander's time Jainism moved out of India also to western and central Asia and on to Greece and Rome. Alexander met nude Jain monks in Gandhar, Taksila, Punjab and Sindh.
This period also became a period when the division of Jain into Digambara and vetambara sects was formalized in spite of efforts by a number of monks in Mathur and got formalized in 1st century AD. Due to the intense criticism of Jain philosophy by other Indian philosophers, Jain c ryas started writing scriptures in both traditional as well as logical (iv rya, Kunda Kunda, Um Sv mi, Kumar Svāmi, Bhūtabali and Pūşpadant etc wrote almost all Digambara canons) from 1st century BC till 5th century AD from south India. Skandila tried unsuccessfully to complete vet mbara canons which were later on recompiled in their present version in 5th century AD by Deardhagani. During these period Vedic scholars like Patanjali, Valmiki etc started writing their texts and Buddhist philosophers compiled P li Tripitakas. In Lucknow museum we find a number of Jain idols carrying marks of 1st century BC to 1st century AD. Similar idols and other carvings can be seen in Mathura museum also.
Vikramaditya and his successors ruled Ujjaini from 50BC to 50AD and promoted Jainism, Kank li-Til in Mathur was set up with a large number of inscriptions, idols of Jains, which are even available in
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STUDY NOTES version 4.0