Mahavira and his Teaching

Author(s): C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti

Page 268

ACCOUNTS OF THE JAINAS TAKEN
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Jean Thevenot, perhaps the first European to be attracted to India simply by a thirst for knowledge, gave more or less the
e details in his picture of a Vartia community in Lahorel.
Pedro Teixeira, a Portuguese voyager translated a Persian history into which he inserted random jottings from a lifetime of wandering in the east. He was responsible for the statements that there were three sects in Gujarat: Lonka, Mexery and Bamen (brahmins), and that the Lonka did not worship images. These facts was incorporated into a description of the Moghul empire by a Dutch writer, J. de Laet.3 The choice of names is curious: Mexery must stand for Maheśvarí, a merchnt caste, generally Vaişņaya but including some Jainas.
J. H. van Linschoten, an official of the Netherlands East India Company who was in India from 1583 to 1588 published in 1596 a narrative of his experiences which included a brief mention of Jainism.4 Another Dutch official, W. G. de Jongh who was in India for a longer period (1623-1648) gave a more extensive accounts which remained in manuscript until the present century. Much of the information in it, however, was utilised by his contemporary in India, Johan van Twist who compiled a general description of Gujarat.6 Being essentially the same, their accounts may conveniently be summarised together: strangely both use the term Ceurawach (which is a corruption of svetapațas) for Jaina monks. Jainas, they said, prayed to a saint called Thiel Tencker (Tírthankara) but considered that everything was governed by chance: in their view there was no heaven or hell, but good 1. See Surendranath Sen. Indran Travels of Thevenot and Caren, New Delhi,
1949, pp. 86-7. Relacion del origen, descendencia y succession de los reyes de Persia 1610 pp. 96-7 De impero magni Mogolis, trans. J. S. Hoyland, Bombay, 1928. The 1598 translation of Linschoten's travels was reprinted by the
Hakluyt Society, 1885 5. De Remonstrantie ed. W. Caland The Hague 1929 pp. 75-82 6. Beschrijvinghe van het Coninnghrijke Gusuratte Amsterdam 1647 pp. 3-7
con de los reves de Persia
Antwerp