Jain Journal 1984 04

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

Page 14

APRIL, 1984
self as Godasa-gana. In course of time it had four sākhās of which three were known as Tamraliptiya, Kotivarsiya and Pundravardhaniya, named after three very well-known places in ancient Bengal, viz., Tamralipta (Tamluk in Western Bengal or Radha), Kotivarsa and Pundravardhana (both in North Bengal). The nomenclatures leave no doubt about strong Jaina influence in North, West and South Bengal. The Kalpa Sutra is attributed to Bhadrabahu, of the 4th century B.C.,17 but the present text is not so old, though it contains many old traditions. Inscriptions which may be referred to the end of the 1st century B.C. and the 1st century A.D.18 contain a large number of the names of schools which are mentioned in the Kalpa Sutra and the establishment of the three sākhās in Bengal mentioned in the Kalpa Sutra may also be referred to the same period, if not before. We may therefore reasonably assume that by the 1st century A.D. Jainism was firmly established in different parts of Bengal, including Radha whose people had once been so rude to Mahavira. An inscription discovered at Mathura but now in Calcutta Museum, records the errection of a Jaina image in the year 62 at the request of a Jaina monk who was an inhabitant of Rara. Rara is very probably Radha, a well-known variant of Radha (in Bengal) and the date is to be referred to the Kusana era and therefore equivalent to about 150 A.D.19
The next definite evidence of Jainism in Bengal is furnished by a copper-plate grant, dated year 159 (of the Gupta era and equivalent to 479 A.D.) found in Paharpur in North Bengal famous for the big Buddhist stupa and monastery of the Pala period. (8th century A.D.) The grant records the endowment, by a Brahmana couple, of lands for the maintenance of worship with sandal, incense, flowers, lamps, etc. of the divine Arhats at the vihara of Vata Gohali which was presided over by the disciples and the disciples of disciples of the Nirgrantha Sramanacarya (Jaina preceptor) Guhanandin, belonging to the Pancastupa section (nikaya) of Kasi (Varanasi).20 This record proves the existence of a Jaina temple with images of the Arhats and a monastery, existing for at least three generations i.e., for nearly a hundred years, or more or since 4th century A.D. at the latest. It also shows that even those who were not professed Jainas, including the Brahmanas had the highest reverence for the Jaina Arhats and regarded it as a pious duty to endow the Jaina temples for defraying the expenses of its daily worship.
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17 According to Jaina tradition he was a contemporary of Candragupta Maurya who ruled from c. 324 to 300 B.C.
18 Guerinot, Epigraphie Jaina, pp. 36 ff. 71 ff.
1 R. D. Banerji, Palas of Bengal, p. 72.
20 Ep. Ind., XX, pp. 59ff.