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387
Retrospect
Golden Lotus Tank of the famous Minakshi temple at Madura. As though it was not sufficient to humiliate the Jainas, the whole tragedy is gone through at five of the twelve annual festivals at the Madura temple, on which occasion an image representing a Jaina impaled on a stake is carried in procession.159 In the Vijayanagara Empire the Jaina people known as Pāṇtchurhis were destroyed by the Brāhmaṇas in the times of Adondai, and some embraced the Brahmanical system. 16) Such persecutions were largely responsible for the final overthrow of Jainism in south India. In Karnataka the Jainas were persecuted by the Virasaivas and in Gujaratha and Māravāḍ they were persecuted by the Brahmins. A tradition at Pattan says that Sankaracharya effected the destruction of a number of Jaina priests in that city, and the spot in which they are supposed to have met their fate is to this day called the Lachochara.161 It is reported that the Brahmins were actively aggressive against the Jainas even in the 19th century and used to take forcible possession of their temples and convert them into Hindu temples.162 In the Central India the best Jaina temples are found in very remote spots and it is suggested that they were built at times when the Jainas had to hide in such places to avoid Hindu persecution.163 In North India from time to time fanatic kings indulged in savage outbursts of cruelty and committed genuine acts of persecution directed against Jainas or Buddhists as such.164 Thus the persecution of the Jainas in different parts of India hastened their decline which had already gained some momentum due to the loss of royal patronage and slackness of the monastic order.
The strength of the Jaina community was further weakened when various religious and social divisions arose in the community. It has already been noted that the Jaina Church was one and undivided upto 81 A. D. but from that year it was divided into two major divisions, viz., the Digambara and the Svetambara. These sects were further divided into small sub-sects and groups like Gana and Gachchha and strangely enough these groups came into existence solely due to the trivial differences between the ascetics. Some of the divisions were no doubt revolutionary in the sense that they completely renounced idol-worship and took to the worship of the scripture only. As the underlying philosophy is common to all sects and sub-sects, really speaking there is no reason why animosity should arise among them. But actually
