Jainism in India

Author(s): Ganesh Lalwani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 78

JAINISM IN INDIA
stūpas. These support the surmise that Jainism was widespread in Western India at the time of the advent of the Greeks.
Jainism during the Saka era—Jainism held a position of esteem in the Saka era. The dominant figure of the period was Kalakacarya. who wandered in Saurastra, Avanti and Western Rajasthan and spread the tenets of Jainism. His sister Sarasvati too supported him in this mission as a nun. Gardhavilla, the king of Ujjaini, was too much attracted by her beauty that he wanted to have her. This enraged Kalakacarya who, by dint of his knowledge of astronomy mobilised the support of the Saka king Maues who laid seize of Ujjaini and defeated Gardhavilla. Maues had printed many coins of which one has a seated image on one side and of an emerging elephant on its reverse. Tarn has identified the image to be that of the Buddha. But this reading may be far from correct and the image may be that of a Tirthankara on whom the elephant is coming to sprinkle water. It is quite possible that Maues had accepted Jainism under the influence of Kalakacarya and printed a coin with the image of a Tirthankara.
Ujjaini was in Saka possession for 17 years. It was recovered by Gardhavilla's grandson Vikramaditya. During the reign of Vikramaditya the Malava republic was a part of south-east Rajasthan and Jainism was a living religion in Western India. According to Jaina tradition, Vikramaditya himself became a Jaina.
In the first century A.D. Harsapura was supposed to be a prosperous town. It was located somewhere between Ajmer and Puskara. According to Jaina literary evidence, there were three hundred Jaina temples here. At this time there was a king named Suvarapala who reigned here but he is not yet identified in history. This however does not disprove of Jainism being an important religion of this region. Harsapura gaccha too must have derived its name from this place. There are inscriptions available of this gaccha of the 10th and 11th centuries A.D.
The efforts of Samantabhadra too helped the propagation of Jainism in the 2nd century A.D. According to an inscription of Sravana Belgola he himself went to many places to propagate Jainism. He had even visited Malava which formed the south-eastern part of Rajasthan at that time.
Mention in Huien Tsang's account-It is known from Huien Tsang's account that Jainism was practised from Taxila to the extreme South. Of Rajasthan, his record contains the account of Bhinmal and Bairath