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JAINISM IN INDIA
Harigupta, a Jaina monk, was the guru of Toraraya and stayed with him. Harigupta himself seems to have belonged to a royal family because a coin or two are known to bear this name. From the reference that Harigupta was the guru of the reigning monarch of Parvatika, it is not unreasonable to conclude that Parvatika was an important centre of Jainism in the Huna period.
5. Nagarkot-Kangra (c.1000-1600 A.D.) The next centre of Jainism is Nagarkot, another name of Kangra, standing both for the fort and the town. It is 135 miles from Amritsar by rail. In ancient times it was the capital of Trigarta or the hilly country lying between the Sutlej and the Ravi. Till recently it presented a picture of old Hindu culture and polity.
That the valley of Kangra was once a flourishing centre of Jainism 's warranted neither by the present Jaina population of the region which counts about a hundred souls, nor by any tradition current among the Jainas.
Sir Alexander Cunningham was the first to notice the remains of the old Jaina temples and images in the Kangra fort and the town. He found there a number of Jaina inscriptions also. To account for the finds he remarked that the Diwans of the Muslim rulers of Delhi stationed at Kangra were Digambara Jainas.
The oldest and the longest inscription is the one inscribed on the pedestal of an image of Rsabha. It was edited by G. Buhler who found that its script was old Sarada resembling that of the Baijnath prasasti. The date mentioned in it is sam. 30 which may be the laukika sam. 30, corresponding perhaps to 854 A.D. The word gaccha in it denotes that the image belonged to the Svetambara sect. This image and its inscription have been noted by Sir John Marshall also.
The late Dr. K. N. Sitaram made an extensive tour in the Kangra valley in 1930. He discovered numerous Jaina images and ruins of Jaina temples and found that some of them had been appropriated by the Hindus under different names, e.g. the Ganapati temple lying between the railway station and the rest house at Baijnath-Paprola was originally a Jaina temple.
The credit of finding an authentic literary document which proves beyond doubt the importance of Kangra in Jaina history goes to Muni Jina Vijaya, the well-known scholar of Jaina history and literature. For Private & Personal Use Only
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