Jain Journal 1973 10

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

Page 45

82
After Patna, the next important settlement of the Jainas appear to be the township of Bihar. Besides being an important textile manufacturing centre and market-place for the surrounding country-side, it was near to two Jaina sacred places, Rajgir and Pavapuri.
Three inscriptions in Bihar belonging to Samvat 1638, 1643 and 1694 show that the local Jaina community was rich because they constructed temples and dedicated images.11 Some of them appeared to have lived their long and thought themselves as inhabitants of the place. This can be deduced from an inscription of Samvat 1698 at Pavapuri wherein a group of Jainas who built a temple described themselves as belonging to Bihar.12 Twelve families are mentioned. This group was again instrumental in the erection of another Jaina temple at Pavapuri.13
Bihar was famous among the Jainas and a work of the late seventeenth century devotes two pages to its description.14
Another rich Jaina trader who is frequently mentioned in inscriptions found at Pavapuri, Rajgir and Kundalpur (near Nalanda) and Gunaya (near Nawadah) was Sanghvi Sangram Singh. He dedicated several Jaina images and erected temples in these holy places. 15 These inscriptions are dated Samvat 1702, 1707, 1686 and 1688 respectively. He was an inhabitant of Bihar and may have been the head of the local Jaina Community as his name along with that of his parents, stands at the head of the list of devotees.16
Campanagar in the vicinity of modern Bhagalpur was another important point of concentration of the Jainas. They came here because it was a textile-producing area. Its geographical location rendered it the chief-marketing centre of south-eastern Bihar. Besides, it was an important transit-point for traders coming from north-eastern Bihar and Nepal. Hence, even Hiranand Shah extended his activities to this place.17 Inscriptions dated Samvat 1756 indicate that the Jainas here belonged to Maksudabad and Bikaner.18 They were rich. They cons
11 Ibid., Insc. Nos. 221, 223 and 228.
12 Ibid., Insc. No. 190.
13 Ibid., Insc. No. 191
14
JAIN JOURNAL
Digvijayamahakavya, pp. 122, 124.
Jain Inscriptions I, nos. 198, 245, 271 and 176.
Jain Inscriptions II, No. 1697.
17 Jain Inscriptions I, No. 135.
18
Ibid., Insc. Nos. 138, 139.
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