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IDEALISM AND REALISM
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CONCLUSION Truly, nothing succeeds like success; and the failure of Jainism to hold its own against its numerous rivals in the South, as in the North, has led to many a false estimate of its achievements in the past. Thus, it is largely held that Jainism, like Buddhism, did not strike deep roots in South India and that there was nothing like a Jaina Period in the history of India. 160 With all deference to the scholars who maintain these views, we venture to believe that the study of Jainism in Karnāțak, attempted in the foregoing pages, inadequate as it is in many ways, is sufficient evidence to the contrary. Despite the flux of half a century and more since Fergusson wrote, his observations still remain largely true, viz. that “Until the numerous Jaina inscriptions which exist everywhere in the South are collected and translated, and until plans are made of their buildings, and statistics collected about them, it is idle to speculate either about the time of the introduction of Jainism into the South, or its vicissitudes during its existence there. It is a task which, it is to be feared, few in that Presidency are capable of undertaking, and that fewer still are willing to devote the time and lobour requisite for its successful accomplishment; but it is worthy of being attempted, for, if successfully carried out, it would add to our scant stores of knowledge one of the most interesting chapters still available for the religions and artistic history of the people of India,161 Much research has been done since 1876 when Fergusson made these remarks, but much more still remains to be done. However, with what materials we can gather at present, let us focus together the various problems and their solutions suggested by this our necessarily inadequate study.
160 Cf. Aravamuthan, Kaveri, Maukhāris and the Sangam Era, p. 2
Smith, The Oxford History of India, p. 55. 161 Fergusson, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, I, pp. 466-67
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