Jain Journal 2005 10

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

Page 26

CHITTARAJAN PAL JAINISM IN BENGAL
It is also very strange that the Jaina History of Bengal has been reconstructed solely from literary source, a sizeable portion of which has been gathered from the literature of the Buddhists - their opponents. But this single source material gradually grew scarce and ultimately dried up with the passage of time. The drying up of this source is instrumental in spreading a veil of darkness on the Jaina History of Bengal for a period of three centuries or more. But this veil was lifted up with the composition of Brhatkathakoṣa by Harisena in the early tenth cetury A.D.
It is difficult to explain why did the author of Brhatkathākoṣa dive deep into the occean of mythology and legends to bring to light the boyhood and parentage of their great pontiff and at the sametime did sing the glory of Kotivarṣa and Pundravardhana of ancient times? It is only to satisfy the inquisitiveness of the devotees of the great pontiff regarding the correct perspective of his pre-ordained life or is it the vigrous growth and enlargement of the Jaina monastic establishment in and around Pundravardhana that led Harisena to dwell upon such matter after the lapse of one thousand years or more? Answer to these questions would help the readers understand the importance inherent to the narrative of Harisena Sūri.
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It is to be noted that some eminent historians think that the story of Bhadrabahu as told by Harişena does not reveal any historical truth, but at the sametime they state that "...it perhaps indicates that North Bengal was an important centre of Jainism even in the 10th century A.D."13
It is an undeniable fact that Kotivarṣa viṣaya and Pundravardhana Bhukti (i.e. North Bengal) were never lost to the Jainas from the 5th / 4th century B.C. to the advent of the Turkish hordes in Bengal at the fag end of the 12th century A.D.
In the Divyavadana and the Aśokāvadāna, there is a legend which states that the Buddha, on an urgent request of Sumagadhā, daughter of Anathapindaka, the merchant disciple of the Buddha arrived at
R.C. Mazumder. History of Ancient Bengal, p. 522.
13.