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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
ANTIQUITY OF THE PANCARATRA
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2. Smaller in extent, and South Indian but genuine
descendants of No, I above. 3. Later in origin, both North and South Indian, dealing
with any special cult and conspicuous by the absence
of the Vyühas. It is noteworthy that the learned Doctor found the names of the oldest Samhitās from internal evidences, and classed the present work, the Jayakhyasambită, under the head of the oldest Saṁhitās, No. 1 above.
ANTIQUITY OF THE PĀÑCARĀTRA. In determining the antiquity of the Pañcarătras, there is a great dearth of material, and really speaking, though we can have a vague realisation that the Pāñcarātras were of a very great antiquity, it is, however, extremely difficult to prove it by means of the materials at present available. The most reliable amongst the different kinds of evidence is however furnished by the Bhilsa inscription 1 which shows that the Vasudeva worship existed in the earlier part of the second century B. C. when a Garudadhvaja was erected by the Greek convert Helliodoros. The evidence furnished by Pāṇinio and Patañjali' regarding the existence of Vasudeva worship is no less reliable. Paņini as we know flourished after the capital of Magadha was removed to Pāțaliputra from Rājagặha by Udayi the grandson of king Ajātasatru who was a contemporary of Buddha. And that Patañjali flourished in the time of Sunga Pușyamitra in the second century B. C. is wellknown. These evidences prove conclusively that Vāsudeva worship or rather the Pāñcarātra School existed at least in the time of Påņini probably close after 400 B. C. The evidence regarding people being divided into two great sub-divisions of Vaişnava and Saiva as furnished by Megasthenes who came 1. Bhandarkar: Vaişņavism, Saivism etc. p. 3; and J.R. A.S. 1909,
pp. 1053, 1089. 2 & 3. ibid. pp. 3, 4, 13. 4. H. P. Shastri : Magadhan Literature, Lecture II, pp. 23 ff.
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