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CHAPTER 8
WEST INDIA
MEDIEVAL JAINA TRADITIONS SPEAK OF MAHAVIRA'S VISIT TO WEST INDIA, especially Bhinmal (Bhillamala) in south-west Rajasthan or Marwar and Mundasthala (modern Mungthala) near Mount Abu. An inscription dated v.s. 1334 (A.D. 1277), recording the consecration of the Mahavira temple at Bhinmal by Pürpacandra Süri, says that Mahavira had visited Bhillamāla.1 A later inscription, of v.s. 1426 (A.D. 1369), from the Jaina temple at Mungthala also says that Mahavira had visited that place. But Mahavira's itinerary seems to have been limited to east India only. He had been to Ladha (Radha) in the east where he suffered great hardships at the hands of local primitive population.
Mauryan rule extended westward at least up to Bairat in Rajasthan, Girnar in Gujarat and Sopara in the Deccan as evidenced by Aśoka's edicts at these places, and it is very likely that his grandson Samprati, whose patronage to Jainism is well-attested by early texts like the Bṛhat-Kalpa-Bhasya and the Nisitha-Curni, did continue to exercise control over these parts. But no relic of Jaina art which can be definitely assigned to the Mauryan or Sunga period has been discovered from these regions.
A fragmentary inscription discovered at Barli, Ajmer District, was read as referring to the year 84 after Vira and to Majhamika (Madhyamika), modern Nagari near Chitorgarh. D.C. Sircar has, however, shown that the reading Vīrāt 84 is not tenable, and hence the Jaina association of this inscription is now discarded.
1 Progress Report, Archaeological Survey of India, Western Circle, 1907-08 p. 35.
Muniraja Śrl-Jayantavijaya, Arbudacala Pradaksinä Jaina lekha-sandoha, Bhavnagar, 1947, V, inscription 48.
• Brhat-Kalpa-Bharya, III, gdthds 3277-3289, pp. 917-21; Nitha-Curni,, section 5, gäihd 2154, and Cürni, p. 362: Sthaviravali-caritra or Parisistaparvan of Hemacandra, XI, 55-110.
4R.R. Halder in Indian Antiquary, LVIII, 1921, p. 229; G.H. Ojha, Bharatiya Pracina Lipimala, Ajmer, 1918, pp. 2-3; K.P. Jayaswal in Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, XVI, 1930, pp. 67-68.
*D.C. Sircar, 'Barli fragmentary stone inscription', Journal of the Bihar Research Society, XXXVII, 1951, pp. 34-38.
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