Mahavira and his Teaching

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

Page 331

324 K. A. NĪ LAKANȚA ŚĀSTRI & V. RĀMASUBRAMAŅIAM, AUNDY
nāgas, Nandas, Mauryas and Khāravelas of the pre-Christian era. This legal protection existed in the Tamil kingdoms also.
65. It may well be asked here why people should get enamoured of 'tapas' ? Our answer is this: It was true that Jaina philosophy had explained clearly that tapas was the means for expiating one's sins and for qualifying oneself for the next stage towards 'adepthood'. But the popular notion in South India and South-East Asia about tapas was that it enabled one to secure supernatural powers and insight into the happenings of past and future lives. When such a tempting prospect had been denied by law to all but the males of the twice-born, it became all the more attractive.
66. The 48,000 adherents to the monastery of Tirunarunkondai (South Arcot District) could not have escaped the above temptation (para 10). The same number occurs in a Kerala inscription also as adherents to Kuņavāyirkottam. And, again, in the statement of Dr. B. C. Law (in para 63), we notice that the 'Bhagavatı Sutra and the 'Kalpa Sūtra' had been declaring that hundreds of sages had acquired specialised knowledge in 'trnsformations' and foretellings.
67. These śramaņas were using Tamil as their major medium of instruction and communication. Some top leaders were, of course, hailing from northern India and they were masters of Sanskrit and Jaina Prakrit, but the rank and file of the above congregations were Tamilians with but some knowledge of Sanskrit. We have, however, reason to believe that the novices and the upāsakas were drawn from the then-existing Tamil-speaking Brāhmin and other aristocratic communities. 1 Hindu and Buddhist chronicles boast of low-born and untouchable devotees attaining emancipation. But such a claim is very rarely met 1. A Kerala inscription (See Appendıx G) records that, in one Jaina Palli,
provision had been made for the feeding of one Brāhmin ever day, besides the employees.