Jain Journal 2005 04

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

Page 18

CHITTARANJAN PAL: POSITION OF THE JAINAS IN BENGAL
177
The persecution and ill-treatment which the Nirgranthas (Jainas) had suffered in the reign of Saśāňka probably continued unabated even during the days of the Mātsyanyāya by the Tīrthikas or Brahmanical religious zealots.
We would not be far wrong if we assume that many Nirgrantha (Jaina) monks of Karņasuvarņa and other places left their monasteies in the reign of Saśāňka and subsequently during the Mātsyanyāya days and migrated to the fastnesses of forests and hilly tracts of Western Bengal or other safe places for the performances of their religious practices unfettered or without let or hindrance. Only a handful of Nirgrantha (Jaina) monks probably, any how, remained clung to their old habitations suffering all sorts of privations.
There is no derying the fact that the Nirgranthas (Jainas) were in the habit of leaving uncongenial habitations and migrating to safer zones for the performance of their religious duties from time immemorial. To cite an example, the exodus of a band of twelve thousand Jaina monks to south India under the leadership of Bhadrabāhu, the preceptor of Chandragupta Maurya, may be mentioned.13
So all the monasteries in ruins in the country on the bank of the Ganges where houses were built" did not belong solely to the Buddhists. Some of those ruined monasteries whereupon houses were built" probably belonged to the Nirgrantha or the Jaina sect.
This assumption is no product of poetical imagination or wishful thinking. Some indirect archaeological evidence may be adduced in support of this view. An ancient copper plate inscribed in the year circa 478/479 A.D. records the gift of lands for the maintenance of a Jaina temple and worship of the Arhats or Jainas at the Vihāra founded by Nirgratha-nātha-ācārya, Guha Nandi of the Pancastupa Nikāya of
13.
Mrs. Stevenson - Heart of Jainism.