Jain Journal 2007 01

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

Page 31

144
JAIN JOURNAL: VOL-XLI, NO.3 JANUARY 2007
recognized religions including Buddhism. Gūlia Băcideva, a feudatory of the Hoysalas, ruling as chief of Marugare province, extended his umbrella to the four traditionally recognized religions. In fact, his inscription commences with this invocatory verse;
Śivāya dhātre Sugatāya Vişņave
Jināya tasmai sakalātmane namah //
[Epigraphia Carnatika. Vol. XII. Tumkur 9. CE. 1151. Kaidala]
Jainism, despite the tough competition from Buddhism, its coeval religion, stayed on with intensity and continued to be an influential and living faith through the length and breadth of the country. Of course, both of them coexisted for over a thousand years and had common royal patronage. Survival and spread of both the religion depended much on the role played by their congregation of monks, pilgrimage centers and royal shelter. Together they had rejected the authority of the Vedas, condemned unscientific blind beliefs, meaningless rituals and customs. Paradoxically, dilectician scholarsaints of the Jaina, Kalāmukha and Pāśupata Saiva faiths, had mastered Sugata-śāstra, the basic Buddhist texts and philosophy so that they could felicitously participate in the religious debates. Phrases likeBauddha-madehha-pañcānana, lion to the elephant in rut (i.e., a Buddhist scholar), suggest the religious debates where the Buddhist scholars were involved. It is rather unfortunate that instead of developing cordial relationship, the two heretic faiths of Jainism and Buddhism maintained hostility and engaged in frequent religious feud. By pulling each others feet, they suffered a set back. Instead, had Buddhism and Jainism developed more and more affinity, the religious history of India would have been different from what it is now.
Recently (2001 and 2004), Professors M.S. Krishna Murty and M.V. Krishnappa have unearthed an extraordinary brick foundation of a Buddhist Caitya and Vihāra at Rājaghatta (Bangalore Dt.), which has added a new dimension to the subject under discussion. The huge Vihāra consists of seven cloisters in a row and an apsidal