Mahavira Jain Vidyalay Suvarna Mahotsav Granth Part 1

Author(s): Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya Mumbai
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

Page 591

Jainism in Ancient Bengal
R. C. MAJUMDAR
The first recorded contact of Bengal with Jainism was marred by
incidents which reflect great discredit on her people. We learn from the Ācāränga Sūtra that when Mahāvīra wandered as a naked mendicant in Lādha (i. e. Rādha or western part of undivided Bengal) through its two divisions known as Vajjabhūmi and Subbhabhūmi, he was attacked by the people who even went to the length of setting dogs upon him. It appears that it was not due to any malice against Mahāvīra, but the people generally maltreated the ascetics. It was difficult to travel in Lādha which is described as duccara or pathless country. It is said that many recluses lived in Vajjabhūmi where they were bitten by the dogs and cruelly treated in hundred other ways. Some of the recluses carried bamboo staves in order to keep off the dogs (latthim gahaya ņālīyaṁ). The Ajīvikas habitually went about with a staff in hand, which was a matter of necessity with them."2
Of the peregrinations of Mahāvīra which brought him to Rādha along with Gosāla, also called Makkhali, we get a full account in Jinadāsa's Cūrnī to the Avaśyaka Sūtra, and the Bhagavati Sūtra describes how these two, the founders, respectively, of the Jaina and Ājivika sects, settled down together before undertaking the annual
1 S. B. E., XXII, p. 84. 2 Barua, B. M., The Ajīvikas, p. 57.