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OCTOBER, 1891.] BARABAR AND NAGARJUNI HILL CAVE INSCRIPTIONS.
863
Professor Kern steers clear of these old errors, and that his interpretation of all the passages is self-consistent, his confidence in the statements of Utpala appears justifiable, because the latter are supported by so ancient a writer as Kalakâchârya. The Kalakacharya, quoted by him, is in all probability the famous Jaina teacher, who is said to have changed the date of the Pajjusan festival in the year 993 after Vira, 10 or A. D. 466. The identification is suggested by the fact that Utpala's Kålakâchârya is the author of a work on astrology and that the Jainas ascribe to their latest Kalakacharys an innovation which presupposes the study of astronomy. If thus the author, quoted by Utpala, belongs to the fifth century, his statements deserve to be treated with all due respect.
Under the circumstances stated, it appears to be certain that the monks, for whom Asoka and his grandson Dasaratha provided cave-dwellings were not Buddhists, but members of some other sect, and it is probable that they were Vaishṇavas. As Asöka himself says in the twelfth Rock-edict that he honoured men of all creeds with gifts and various honours, it is no matter of surprise that he excavated cavesll for others than Buddhists. But the interesting point is that he did so as late as his thirteenth year, and possibly, if the Âjivikas were named also in the third inscription, 12 even as late as his twentieth year. The first fact alone is sufficient to upset the usual theories regarding his conversion to Buddhism, but it agrees with the correct interpretation of the hints contained in the Sahasrâm and Rupnåth edicts, which will be given on another occasion.
For the present I will only state that Asoka became really & zealous Buddhist in the twenty-ninth year of his reign.
Of equal importance is the second lesson which these inscriptions teach. Their correct interpretation helps to upset a very generally received, but completely erroneous doctrine in Indian archæology. For a long time it was almost an article of faith with Indian archeologists that the Buddhists invented and first developed the cave-architecture, and that the Brahmaņical sects and the Jainas adopted this style at a very late period. Even the newest and standard work on this subject, Dr. Fergasson's and Dr. Burgess' Cave Temples of India, gives repeatedly expression to very similar views. It no doubt somewhat pushes back the remoter limit for the beginning of the excavation of caves by the Brahmaņs. But the Buddhists are still represented as the inventors of the cave temples, and, according to the concluding remarks, p. 510, "the Jainas only awakened to the idea that they, too, might share in the spoils" at a late period, "when Buddhism was tottering to its fall, and the Brahmans were stripping them (sic) of their sapremacy and power." Such utterances were only natural ten years ago, when the early activity, which the adherents of Vardhamâna displayed in this direction, had not been recognised. At present the case is far different. Dr. Bhagvânlal has shown, independently from Professor Kern (Der Buddhismus, Vol. II., pp. 239-40), that a most important groap of caves of the pre-Christian period, that at Udayagiri in Katak, belongs not to the Buddhists, but to the Jainas. If we now have to admit farther, that at least five of the oldest caves are certainly not Buddhistic, and probably Brahmanical, it becomes evident that the adherents of all sects have equally contributed to the development of the cave-architecture.
They all used caves for housing their ascetics who wished to live in retirement, and Es places of worship or at least for the protection of images of their gods. The full realisation of this principle will, I think, not merely have a theoretical value, but possess also a practical importance. It will probably indace the Indian archæologists to reconsider their views regarding some excavations which have been assigned to the Buddhists on very weak evidence or even
10 Regarding the several Kalaklob Aryns of the Jainas, see Prof. Jacobi, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenliin. dischen Gesellschaft, Vol. XXXIV. p. 253 ff. I may mention as a curiosity that in late South Indian inscriptions the term djivika denotes the Digambara Jainas, see Hultzsch, South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I, p. 88, and passim.
11 Caves may be well included under the head of gifts.
12 The position of the cave in the immediate vicinity of the other two, where the name occurs, makes this very probable.
