Jainism

Author(s): N R Guseva
Publisher: Sindu Publications P L

Page 66

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JAINISM
the innumerable gods of Hinduism, as though they were the heads of the pantheon. Gods Shiva and Vishnu, became the chief objects of worship of Bhagvats in south India. And thus two main currents—Shivaism and Vishnuism--took shape in Hinduism.
This was the early epoch of bhakti, the religious movement in Hinduism, calling for unlimited, self-renouncing love towards the deity Shiva or Vishnu.
Bhakti-Shivayats (i.e. the fanatic adherents of Shivaism) known by the name of Nayanars and Bhakti-Vishnuits (Alvars) composed hymns in praise of these gods. These hymns sérve for the historians as a great and extremely interesting section of literature of the early Middle Ages in south India.
From these sources it can be seen that enmical relations sprung up between the Jain community and Bhakti-Hinduists in the south towards the middle of the first millennium A.D.
The Jain religion-preachers founded a monastery in the district of South Arcot (modern state of Madras), and named it Pataliputra-evidently in memory of one of the northern strongholds of this religion. The monks in Pataliputra converted a wide strata of local population into Jainism, including several strong rulers of south Indian states, as for example, Mahendravarman of the Pallava dynasty (beginning of the seventh century A.D.).
This monastery was not the only influential centre of Jainism in the south. The Jain monasteries in Puhar, Urapur, Madurai and in a number of other places in south India acquired fame in the first half of the first millennium A.D.
It is evident that rivalry due to influence of the sains on the rulers and also due to economic benefits (struggle for land, donated to monasteries and temples for rich contributions etc.) served as one of the reasons for the enmity between the communities.
The fight between the Jains and the Bhakts sometimes led not only to public disputes (in those disputes, the defeated were to adopt the faith of the winner) or to contests in demonstrating 'miracles' but also to mass executions of Jains, instigat
4. Xavier S. Thani Nayagam, Earliest Jain and Buddhist Teaching in the Tamil Country, p. 42.
5. Ibid., pp. 42-43.