Jain Journal 1972 04

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

Page 79

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JAIN JOURNAL
Jaina church occupied by women. The plates (published by Buhler in EI, Vol I) throw light, among other things, on the history of the Indian or Brahmi alphabet, on the grammer and idiom of the Prakrit dialects, on the development of Indian arts, and on the history, organisation and worship of the followers of this Indian religion.” They undoubtedly contain valuable information about contemporary life, society, customs, manners, fashions and even things political.
From the 2nd 3rd century onwards upto the 10th century we have only a few inscriptions in northern India, scattered over Mathura, Bihar, Bengal, Central and Western India, some of which are quite important. But it is the South—the Deccan, Konkon, Karnataka, Andhra, Tuluva, and Tamil lands which during the next centuries abound with numerous Jaina inscriptions, on stone, images, temples and monuments, copper-plate grants and other donative records. They are full of valuable historical information and many of them are dated. A large number of them have been published and are being utilised for historical purposes. Yet quite a number of them still remains unnoticed. Without the help of these records the history of almost none of the ruling dynasties, big or small, belonging to the regions south of Vindhyas could have been fully reconstructed, whereas some of them owe their historical and chronological reconstruction almost wholly to Jaina epigraphic records. As Dr. B. A. Saletore observes, “The numerous epigraphic records and literature of Karnataka, the Telegu and Tamil lands give us an idea of the remarkable contribution Jainism made to the stability and success of many kingdoms.”
Coming to literature, the Jainas of the period cultivated the various languages current in the country. From the 1st to the 8th century A.D. Prakrit works predominate, and the best and greatest amount of Prakrit literature belongs to the Jainas. They began writing in Sanskrit also as early as the 1st-2nd century A.D., but it is only from A.D. 600 onwards that Sanskrit works begin to predominate, and there are quite a number of Jaina pieces of Sanskrit literature which compare favourably with the best in that language. The cultivation of the Apabhramsa language by the Jainas also dates from about the 7th century A.D., and in the period under review some of the best works in that language were produced. The Jainas were undoubtedly the earliest and the greatest cultivators of the Kannada language. The beginnings of the literary history of this language is traced back to the 4th-5th century A.D., and by the 10th century the Jainas had made it a well-established literary language. Similarly, about the Tamil literature it has been said that the best and largest number of the available ancient classical works in that language are of Jaina authorship.