Mahavira and his Teaching

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

Page 333

326 K. A. NILAKANȚA SĀSTRI & V. RĀMASUBRAMANIAM, `AUNDY for the boarding of the thousands of inmates and pupils of the monasteries. It is true that a Jaina monk is forbidden to accept alms from a king. 'Rajapinda' is the contemptiable term for it. (Prabandha-cintāmam of Merutunga, 95-10). But royalty had not been the only patrons of the Jaina church. Presumably the expenses of feeding had been borne then and there by corporate bodies and individuals. And, before they could perpetuate the grant, Jainism must have been eclipsed. 72. Vidal or Vidar-palli in the North Arcot District was a great Jaina centre. ... “An inscription from this place (S.I.I., III, No. 92) dated in the 14th year of Aditya, records that there were about 500 students (pillarkaļ), studying under a ladyteacher, Kanaka-vīrakkurattiyār, who was a disciple of Guņakírti Bhatára. Along with these students, there were, it seems, about 400 nuns, also living in the nunnery. According to the inscription, there seems to have arisen misunderstanding between the teacher and the students on the one hand, and the 400 nuns on the other. We do not know the cause for their quarrel, but, later, it was put an end to at the intervention of the Jainas of the locality, who undertook the responsibility of giving food and protection to the teacher and her pupils. The nunnery was also called 'koil in the inscription." [S. Gurumurti M. A., M. Litt., In "Faina System of Learning in South Indra', in The Bulletin of the Institute of Traditional Cultures', Part II, July-December, 1971). From the terms of the settlement of the above dispute between the nuns and the students, we can very easily surmise that the dispute related to the problem of feeding the pupils, for which there seemed to have had no permanent provision. The local Jaina public had to undertake the responsibility temporarily. We can take the above instance as a pattern and we think that it was the most vulnerable spot in the organisational set-up of the then Jaina church of the Tamil Land. VIII. The Advent of Sankara: 73. It was in this atmosphere of ascendent Jaina power that Sankara, the famous Advaita philosopher, was born in a