Jainism in South India and Some Jaina Epigraphs

Author(s): P B Desai
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur

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PREFACE
This volume is the outcome of intensive research carried on by the author for a number of years in the history of Jainism in South India. The results are put forth after a fairly comprehensive survey of the original sources mainly comprising the epigraphical material, in the three principal linguistic regions of South India, viz., the Andhra Districts of the former Madras State, Tamil country and Karnāțaka. Minor and mechanically elaborate details have been excluded from the treatment. Hundreds of inscriptions in the three languages as well as Sanskrit have been critically examined, and a consistent account of the religious and cultural activities of the followers of the faith is presented in its historical setting. Herein is an attempt, the first of its kind, to delineate a comparative and coördinated portrait of Jainism as it obtained in the early and mediaeval periods of its history in the South. The broad outlines of the study and its outstanding contributions may be indicated here in brief.
Jainism appears to have journeyed from the North to the Andhra region prior to the advent of Buddhism about the 6th century B. C. It came into conflict with Buddhism and met with reverses. Still, it struggled for its existence with remarkable perseverance and survived in this area until as late as the 16th century. It exercised its influence, though limited, among important sections of the society. Many members of the ruling families and officials of the state received light and inspiration from it. The sketch of Jainism in Andhra is reconstructed on the mutually corroborative evidence of literature, tradition and epigraphs.
The early contact of Jainism with the Tamil country dates from the 4th century B. C., as gathered from the Buddhist chronicles of Ceylon. The extensive growth of Jainism in this region has to be attributed to the two-fold missionary activities of the twin streams of Jaina teachers, one flowing from Andhra towards Ceylon and another proceeding from the Mysore region according to the wishes of Bhadrabāhu,' and both joining hands for the propagation of the faith. It can now be announced with a measure of certainty that some at least of the so-called Panchapāņdava Beds found on the hills and in the caverns, in association with Brāhmi inscriptions of the third or second century B. C., are the earliest Jaina monuments of the Tamil Nad.
Patronised by the rulers and members of the royal families and warmly supported by the populace, Jainism grew from strength to strength during the
1 The tradition about the advent of Jainism in Karnataka during the time of Maurya Chandragupta about the beginning of the third century v. c. is questioned by some scholars who place. the event about half a century later ( 230 B. C.) in the reign of Samprati, the grandson of Asoka. Compare Kannada Sahitya Parishal Patrike, Vol. XXVI, p. 141. But this view does not materially affect the broad outlines of the history of Jainism in South India.