Jain Journal 2002 07

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

Page 45

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Dr. B. K. Khadabadi : Contribution of Jainism such type (Jainism in South India some Jiana Epigraphs, Solapur 1957). On such minor evidences and a few other grounds, scholars have surmised that the period between 9th and 10th centuries A.D. was a Jaina period of prosperity and achievements in Andhra Pradesh. In almost all the regions of South India, among the excellent literary old works produced therein, several were by the Jana scholars, who cultivated the regional languages for their religious preaching and teachings. But in the region of Andhra Pradesh not a single Jaina literary work, including that of non-Jaina scholar, is found. The first available literary work is Bhārata (by Nannayya) and belongs to C 10th or 11th Cent. A.D. This means all early works by the Jainas and with them by the Hindus were destroyed by the Buddhists. Somehow an inscription, as noted by Prof. S. Gopalkrishnan Murthy, luckily left out, indicates the existence of an early Jaina University at Rāyadurga a University in stone mentioning some names of Jaina teachers of the Mūla Samgha and the Yāpaniya Samgha. This Jaina University or Institute of Higher Education was contemporaneous with Rāştrakūtas and Western Chālukayas (Preface to the Jaina Vertigen in Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, 1963). This is certainly a reliable pointer, and that shows the possible prosperous life of Jainism in the region of Andhra Pradesh in those days and its possible notable constribution to the Culture of this land.
Kerala
Then the picture of the contribution of Jainism to the culture of the region of the present Keral State is much more shoddy. No notable Jaina vestiges, or monuments are found there now. Yet on the authority of some inscriptions and antiquities found in the Kerala regions, some scholars like Dr. P. B. Desai have postulated that the period between 9th and 11th Cent. A.D. contributed the glorious period of the Jainas in the Kerala region (Journal of Indian History, Vol. XXXV-2), Knowing such elements, the Bhāratiya Jñapitha, Delhi, had entrusted Dr. Gururaj Bhatt to conduct deeper study of this field. But unfortunately after some period Dr. Bhatt expired all of a sudden. Hence I had no idea of whatever result of such study this eminent scholar had accomplished, nor do I know who else took over that study further. Contacting the then Director of the Bhāratiya Jñapitha, Shri Laxmichand Jain, I learnt that Dr. Gururaj Bhatt did not send his