Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

Author(s): Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

Page 58

Introduction 37
The eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries saw the zenith of Jain prosperity which manifested itself into the formation of the cities of temples. But under the shadow of Islam, most of the Jain temples were converted into mosques. “By removing the principal cell and its porch from the centre of the court, and building up the entrances of the cells that surround it, a courtyard was at once obtained, surrounded by a double colonnade, which always was the typical form of a mosque. Still one essential feature was wanting--a more important side towards Macca; this they easily obtained by removing the smaller pillars from that side, and re-erecting in their place the larger pillars of the porch, with their dome in the centre; and, if there were two smaller domes, by placing one of them at each
end."-1
Archaeological Sources : The Epigraphs
According to the Kalpasūtra, the oldest region frequented by the Jain monks comprised Anga-Magadha to the East, Kaušāmbī to the South, Sthunā to the west and Kunālā to the north. The original centre was evidently Anga.Magadha whence the monks dispersed in different directions, and hence the early history of Jainism had rightly been connected by the Jain authorities with the history of Magadha. In Hemacandra's Parisişțaparvan3 it is stated that 60 years after the death of Mahāvīra, king Udāyin of Magadha was murdered by Nanda who established a new dynastic line. The Mauryan kings from Candragupta to Asoka, as well as Kuņāla and Samprati, the son and grandson of the latter, also appear in Hemacandra's list. According to the traditions recorded in the later Jain texts, the Mauryan king Candragupta gave up his royal power in favour of his son and became a Jain monk and a follower of the celebrated Bhadrabāhu and finally put an end to his life by fasting at Sravaņa Belgola in Mysore. Interestingly enough, from an inscription found at the same place, dedicated to the memory of Ācārya Prabhācandra, we learn that Bhadrabāhu had predicted a famine to occur in Ujjayinī, whereupon the whole Samgha moved to the South, while other inscriptions found in the same regions clearly state that Chandragupta was a
libid, p. 69. 21, p. 51. SVI. 243ff., VIII, pp. 339ff. 'IA, III, pp. 153-58, EC, II. pp. Iff. Rice, MCI, pp. 2-10; Narasimhachar, ISB, pp. 16ff.