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JAINISM IN INDIA
only. At both these places Buddhism was in a decadent state. In a math in Bhinmal there lived only hundred Buddhist bhikṣus. But the majority of the people of this place professed other religions. In Bairath there were eight mathas, all in a delapidated state. From this it may be inferred that along with Buddhism, the Vedic religion and Jainism too were the prevalent religions of these two places
In the Vasatgarh temple, there is an image of the 7th century A.D. This supports the existence of Jainism in Rajasthan in that century. In the 8th and 9th centuries this religion became widespread in Rajasthan by the effort of the noted savant Haribhadra Suri. In the beginning he was the priest of Jitari, the king of Citrakuta (Chittore) but later he became a Jaina sādhu.
Muslim travellers' mention of Jainism in Western India—We know of the existence of Jainism in the 8th and 9th centuries from the Muslim travellers. Unfortunately their observations were not complete and their accounts have many flaws. To them every temple, image or monk belonged to Buddhism which is far from correct. Biladuri went so far as to describe the Sun temple to be a Buddhist temple and because of their ignorance of the distinction between Jainism and Buddhism the Europeans, in translating the Muslim records, have repeated the same confusion.
Abu Zaidul has written that in India many male monks lived in forests and had little contact with the mundane world. Some would subsist on fruits and flowers, some would roam nude and some nudes would stand in a standing posture. In the course of his wanderin came across a nude who stood at one place continuously for sixteen years. Standing posture is the characteristic posture of the Jainas and hence in all probability the nude was a Jaina monk.
Asaral-Vilad was himself not a traveller but a writer (13th century). He has written that in a place named Saimur near Sindh there lived a number of kafirs who neither killed animals nor touched meat, fish or eggs. There were others who would not kill themselves but would take meat if killed by others. This indicates the existence of the Jainas and Buddhists side by side.
Jainism under the Rajputs-Jainism inade much progress during the Rajput era. Though themselves the followers of Vaisnavism, the Rajput kings were endowed with toleration and would help the spread of Jainism in all possible ways.
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