Jain Journal 1984 04

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

Page 40

Decline and Fall of Jainism in Western Bengal
AMIYA KUMAR BANERJI
According to Dr. Ramkrishna Gopal Bhadarkar--a name to conjure with in the field of Indian historical research-Pracyadesa (which included most of ancient Bengal) was Aryanised by Jainism. He also states that Buddha and his disciples selected Bihar and Kosala for preaching their religion while Bengal was chosen by Mahavira and his followers for their proselytizing activities. The ancient Jaina texts like the Acaränga Sutra, the Kalpa Sutra, and the Buddhist texts like the Bodhisattvāvadāna Kalpalată and the Divyāvadāna describe in details the first incursion of the faith in this eastern region as also its development into a mighty religion there over the succeeding centuries. It was no wonder that this should happen for in Magadha, immediately to the west of Bengal, most of the Jaina Tirthankaras lived and died and as many as twenty out of the twentyfour apostles of the Jaina faith are reported to have attained their salvation at Sammeta Sikhara the present-day Pareshnath Hills in the Hazaribagh district of Bihar adjacent to the western boundaries of modern Bengal. Such close proximity of the most important citadel of ancient Jainism naturally cast its spell on neighbouring Banga.
Inspite of this early hold on the primitive peoples of Bengal whom it firmly placed on the Aryan road to progress and civilization, Jainism, through a curious stroke of destiny, disappeared completely from its erstwhile seat of influence and power and has not been heard to as a religious force in this part of the country since about the 12th century A.D. The decline and fall of the Jaina faith and its total withdrawal from the Bengal area constitute an interesting field of study. To the careful field worker, many instances are not hard to find in this region which throw considerable light on the submergence of decaying Jainism under the waves of renascent Brahmanical Hinduism that had been gathering momentum on the Indian religious arena for quite some time and which burst forth at long last with such fury on the old order as to leave it throughly spent and exhausted. The present writer in course of his extensive travels in the Radha country poignantly illustrating this clash between the two creeds--one shorn of its former glory and in retreat and the other enveloping and absorbing its rival through the same gentle process of assimilation by which Hinduism has, over the ages, gathered unto its ample folds, in varying degrees, other religious concepts all over India.