Jain Journal 1972 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 50

APRIL, 1972
189
contrary, it would be better to call them the best examples of religious toleration because they did not seem to suppress other faiths. This tolerant spirit of the Guptas has been evidenced both by literary as well as by epigraphic corroboration. For instance, the Kuvalayamālā of Udyotana Suri refers in its introductory verses to a certain Toraraya and his guru Harigupta belonging to the dynasty of the Guptas. This Tora king has been identified with Huna king Toramana (death, first decade of the 6th century A.D.). Harigupta also has been identified with the Harigupta of a copper coin bearing the name, by Cunningham. It may, therefore, be said that the Guptas were not certainly anti-Jaina.
This can further be evidenced by a few epigraphs belonging to the reigns of Kumaragupta and Skandagupta which go to prove that Jainism also flourished modestly side by side with Brahmanism and Buddhism. First, the Udayagiri cave inscription of G. E. 106 (426 A.D.) which belongs to Kumaragupta's reign (414-55 A.D.) refers to the dedication of an image of Parsva by Sanghala, disciple of Gosarman of Arya kula. Another inscription from Mathura speaks clearly of the paramabhattārakamahārājādhirājasrikumāragupta, and mentions the installation of an image by a lady Samadhya at the instance of a Jaina guru who belonged to the Kottiya gana and Vidyadhari sākhā. The famous Kahaum pillar inscription of G. E. 140 (460-61 A.D.) which belongs to the reign of Skandagupta (455-67 A.D.) tells us that a man named Madra dedicated five images of the AdhikartȚs or Jinas on a stone pillar in the village of Kakubha in the modern tahsil of Deoriya in the Gorakhpur district.
Besides, there are a number of other inscriptions belonging to the different kings of this dynasty, which throw light on the religous toleration of these kings. The people also were tolerant. This is amply corroborated by the copper plate of Paharpur, already mentioned, dated G.E. 159 (4787-9 A.D.) and falling in the reign of Budhagupta. It records the gift of land by a Brahmin couple for the maintenance of worship in a Jaina virara presided over by Guhanandi at the village of Vatagohali (Rajshahi District). Even a century after the fall of the Guptas, Hiuen-Tsang describes the existence of naked Jaina mandicants in the temples of north Bengal.
With these references with us, we may say that Jainism was prevalent in the Gupta period, though it was not in a flourishing condition as in the previous period. But as the Paharpur plate shows, it had vitalising energy enough to win sympathy even among the Brahmins. Therefore, even though it lacked a direct royal patronage, it had firm roots in the masses.