Jainism

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

Page 67

DEVELOPMENT OF JAINISM OUTSIDE BIHAR 53
ed by the Brahmin advisers who had influence on the rulers.
There is evidence that in Maharashtra, the Jains were subjected to fierce attacks from groups of local population, led by persons known by the name of Bhairavs. This name shows that those groups of population were evidently 'Shaivas' since the word "Bhairav' is one of the names of Shiva.
In the temple of goddess Minakshee in the town of Madurai (state of Madras) there are frescoes on which mass execution of Jains are carved. Here, even at present, on the day of annual festival of this goddess, a picture of a Jain, impaled, is carried in procession.?
The chief reason for such enmity was those social-economic changes, which made their appearance with the development of feudal relations. There are no indications of such intense enmity between the communities until the beginning of the Gupta epoch. New social strata (and first of all, feudal rulers) rising in the Gupta epoch, and after that epoch i.e. in the period of growth of feudalism, made reformatory BrahmanismHinduism, its own ideological banner. This was Hinduism in the form of the early bhakti. It meant adherence only to supreme god. And then started active attacks on the bearers of the old forms of ideology which was attended by those socialeconomic relations, destined to disappear from historical arena, since they were closely tied with the epoch of formation of class relations.
The victim of this fight was Buddhism, which could not adopt itself to new social-economic conditions and was practically forced out from India towards the eighth-ninth centuries A.D. Jainism, as a religious faith, distinguished itself by its great simplicity and closeness to practical life of the people. It also probably possessed in a greater measure, roots stretching into the thickness of the faiths of ancient peoples and therefore could withstand this conflict.
It is certain that Jain preachers (Acharyas) ordained the members of the community to adhere to the customs of every people, amongst whom they lived (if only these customs did not happen to contradict the basic principles of Jainism). Thus
6. 7.
V. A. Sangave, Jaina Community, p. 102. Ibid., p. 409.