Mahavira and his Teaching

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

Page 329

322 K. A. NĪLAKAŅŢA ŠĀSTRI & V. RĀMASUBRAMAŅIAM, ‘AUNDY'
the cult of the Bhagavan has been a strong force to reckon with in and around the Chera capital of Vanchi and that it was not a passing phase, but a rapidly-growing power from the seventh century to the tenth of the Christian era.
60. We have been noticing so far how the growing cult of Mahavira has been shifting its geo-centre of activity from the Pallava to the Pandya court and thence to the Ayi and the Chera capitals. Though Kunavāyirkkoṭṭam has been dated circa A.D. 757, it could not have bloomed into existence overnight, unless an influential body of Jaina ascetics of that area had already felt the need for it. Hieung Tsang, the Chinese pilgrim, had, in circa A.D. 646, seen with his own observant eyes a number of 'naked heretics' (non-Buddhist Digambars), in Kerala. Indian Historians of an early epoch, who were not in possession of the data which we now have, has brushed aside this plain reference to the Jaina hermits as a fanciful interpretation of the Chinaman's text and declared that the 'naked heretics' meant only the scantily-clothed Nambudhiri Brahmins of that epoch. But the above-cited epigraphs confirm the natural meaning that they were Digambara Jaina monks.
61. Could such a huge, walled monastery as the KunavayirKoṭṭam have come into being without the active initiative and support from the then ruling royal house of the Cheras? Will it be far-fetched if we pose the suggestion that Ilanko aḍikaļ, the ex-crown-prince of the Cheras, who has been reported as 'having renounced royal life and sitting (irubtu) in the eastern monastery, was himself its founder and first pontiff too? The Soothsayer's prophesy could come true only if 'the Ilanko' had 'ascended a governing seat', (pitha) even before his elder brother ascended his throne.
VII. Tamilian Jaina Monastic Life:
62. Jaina monasticism is and had always been a puritan way of life, shunning even the sight of meat, fish and alcoholic beverage. Its essence was not only not to own property,but to curb