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JAIN JOURNAL
spread of Jainism in Bengal and Champā. According to Jaina Kappasutta (Kal pasūtra) and Kathākoșa, Godasa, the celebrated disciple of Bhadrababu laid the foundation of a Jaina school, which became known as the Godåsagaña in subsequent times. There were four branches of the school, viz. Pundravardhaniya, Koțivarsiya, Tamraliptika and Däsi-Kharvaţikā (?), active in Bengal, and it is not difficult to locate their respective areas of origin and jurisdictions for propagation, save the last one. It seems that the latter sub-sect was active in a valley or valleys guarded by the small hills lying in the Dts, of Purulia and Bankura (near the foot-hills of Ayodhya bill in Purulia Dt. or Bihārināth hill near the boundary of Bankura Dt.), Karvața or Kharvața may as well stand for a village lying at the foot-hill. Champa and Sametaśikhara are the two important places on the fringes of Bengal which are associated with the memories of two Tirtharkaras.
Epigraphic records of 1st cent. B.C.--1st cent. A.D, refer to a member of schools of subsects mentioned in the Kalpasūtra indicating thereby to the well-established Jaina tradition in the country. Sometimes, dedications of some Jaina reliquary by lay Jaina worshippers are recorded in the inscriptions; and in one of the 2nd cent, A. D. Mathurā records, the erection of a Jaina image by a resident of Ladha country is mentioned.
We do not get any information regarding the Jainas in the next two centuries following the aforesaid Mathura record in 2nd cent. A.D., though it may be surmised that there were followers of Jainism in Bengal during that period. There are evidences to show that many images of Jaina Tirthařkaras were installed, and several Jaina shrines were established in the Gupta period, but the same partially holds good in the case of Bengal. We hear of Jaina establishments in the district of Rajshahi, now in Bangladesh, From the Jagadishpur copper plate Inscription of 128 G. Y. ( 447-8A, D.) and the Pahadpur copper-plate Inscription of 159 G. Y. (479-80 A, D.), we come to learn that there were Jaina establishments in Pundravardan in the 5th cent. A. D. The first epigraph, issued during the reign period of Kumāragupta I, records that one local Saiva householder dedicated some land for the worship of Jaina deities in a Siddhāyatana (Jaina vibāra) lying in a mango-grove in the Gulmagandhika locality of village Samagohali. The second epigraph belonging to the reign period of Budhagupta records that one Brahmin couple dedicated some lands for the worship of the Jaina ‘arhats' and construction of
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