Book Title: Jain Legend Vol 3
Author(s): Hastimal Maharaj, Shuganchand Jain, P S Surana
Publisher: Hastimal Maharaj Shugan C Jain P S Surana
View full book text
________________
M gha Nandi, with the active and full support of King Gaṇḍarāditya of Kolhapur and his adviser Nimba Deva, mobilised 770 bright young disciples for initiation as clothed Jain monks and then providing highest levels of education to these disciples.; followed by creating 25 seats of power of Bha rakas all over the country and anointing his disciples as the Bha rakas on these seats. All these happened during the later part of 11th century AD and early part of 12th
century AD.
It will not be out of place to say that Bha raka tradition of that period did a yeomen service to keep Jain tradition and religion alive and prosper; even though they did drift from the basic code of conduct as prescribed in scriptures for the rama as.
Impact on Bha
raka tradition of temple-dwellers congregation
After V.N. 1000, partly due to the absence of c ryas with some knowledge of prior canons, the ill effects of temple dwellers congregation kept on growing rapidly. By adopting fake and attractive rituals as religion, their popularity kept on increasing and they became bigger and bigger. This development greatly affected the three Jain sects i.e. Digambara, vet mbara and Y pan ya as majority of their followers kept on drifting towards temple dwellers congregation. Further the three sects started having difficulties in recruiting new monks in their congregations as well. These developments caused serious concerns of eclipse of their congregations amongst the leading c ryas of the three sects. To countermand the growing influence of temple dwelling congregation after lot of critical thinking and analysis; these c ryas also adopted the poplar and material based rituals of temple dwellers congregation and hence made irreversible changes in the fundamental code of conduct of Jain monks. In this way the temple dwellers congregation greatly affected the Bha raka tradition also.
Impact of Y pan ya tradition on Bha raka tradition
Serious study and analysis of ancient manuscripts bring forth the significant and amazing impact of Y pan ya tradition on Bha raka tradition. Some of these are listed below:
1.
The first significant revelation comes from the fact that rava abelagol was the first seat of Bha raka tradition. This
51
