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INTRODUCING JAINISM
Gujarat in the 13th c. A.D. practised tolerance to all sorts of religious beliefs. What is secularism today, was also. practised by Vastupāla at that time. One verse shows how Vastupāla was honoured by all sorts of religious people. A verse from the Purātana-prabandha-samgrahademonstrates the truth of this assertion.
bauddhair bauddho vaisnavair visnubhaktah, saivaiḥ śaivo yogibhir yogarangah . jainais tāvajjaina eveti kṛtvā,
sattvādhāraḥ stūyate vastupālaḥ// "Vastupāla, the depositor of strength, is praised in this way by the Buddhists as Buddha, by the Vaisnavas as a devotee of Vişnu, by the Saivas as Śiva and by the Yogis as a devotee of Yoga and also by the Jains as a Jina".
This one piece of information as recorded in the above book is good enough to say that tolerance as one of the administrative measures was followed by one Jaina king, Vastupāla by name, in the 13th cent. of the Indian history. Almost at the same time there is a similar type of verse (sources not known) found in several books of importance where a sort of secularism is focused. The verse says that the lord of the three world (Trilokanātha) is considered as the same by different religious people. The verse runs as sallows :
yam saivāḥ samupāsate siva iti brahmeti vedāntino bauddhā buddha iti pramānapatavaḥ karteti naiyāyikāḥ arhannityatha jainaśāsanaratāḥ karmeti mimamsakāḥ so'yamvo vidadhātu vāñchitaphalamtrailokyanātho hariş//
"Whom the Saivas worship as Siva, and the Vedantins as Brahma, the Buddhists, expert in logic, as Buddha and the Naiyāyikas as the Creator and the Jains, adherent to the teachings of Jaina, as arhan (that is jina) and the Mimāmsakas consider as the karma (actions) that Hari, the lord of the three worlds, gives us the fruit desired by us".
The above mentioned two passages will show how a sort of secularism in the modern sense of the term was prevalent in the middle history of India which shows a sense of
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