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HISTORICAL & ETHNICAL ROOTS OF JAINISM 33
the customs and social institutes of local peoples and in particular the Asuras.
It is possible to speak with certainty that the Asuras were the bearers of the ancient forms of Jainism as is done by Acharya Tulsi? Probably it is more correct to say that the cults of the Asuras entered into Jainism. The word 'Asura' is used by the Jains themselves in a sense close to the brahmanic sense i.e. as meaning the spirits of the dead wicked people but more frequently Asuras are called retinue of Tirthankaras i.e. an honourable place is given to them.27
It is possible that the other autochthonic people-the Bhilswho had also widely settled in ancient India practised the cults which were one of the component parts of Jainism.
A viewpoint exists in ethnography that the Bhils at one time spoke one of the Munda languages. It is considered that Nishadas, always referred to in the Epic, Puranas and other works of ancient literature were Bhils.28 According to the geneological lists contained in the Puranas a ruler by name Nishadha (who must be understood as ethnonym) originated from Vena whom the priests killed because he restricted their power. This Vena in his turn had Anga as his father (Anganame of an ancient state on the eastern border of modern Bihar) and his sons-in-law were sons of Sudyumna, by names Udlaka, Gaya and Vinateswa (rulers of eastern Gangetic states). Let us remember that the Sudyumna people were possibly related to the Munda family, as has been referred to above.
According to geneologists all the abovementioned persons are traced to Manu Chakshusha, who through his ancestor Dhruva (polar star) can be traced back to still distant ancestor Uttanapada. The name 'Uttanapada' can be translated as the 'Northern country'. Thus the line of Sudyumna somehow can be traced back somewhere to the north. But since we do not have weighty grounds to assume that the Munda people
27. F. Bushanan, Particulars of the Jains; H. Jacobi, Jaina Sutras Kalpasutra-Lives of the Jinas.
28.
Census of India 1931, Vol. I Part II; C. S. Benkatachar, Ethnological Accounts of Bhils of Central India, pp. 51-52; T. B. Naik, The Bhils, pp. 11-13; A Banerji, Archaeological History of Mewar I (from 3rd century B.C. to 300 A.D.) pp. 316-53; R. Shafer, Ethnography of Ancient India, p. 8.
