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168
PROLEGOMENA TO PRAKRITICA et JAINICA
diseases, (ahiņsā) is the best healing herb; and ahimsā is called the perpetual return of existence."
Hemacandra thinks that the protection to all animal beings (abhayadāna or karuņādāna) is the positive side of ahimsā which everyone should follow Ahimsā in History
The above citations are textual, but there are some historical references as well. In the history of Gujarat, Kumārapāla occupies a unique position. After Jayasimha (1094-1142 A.D.), Kumārapäla (1142-1173 A.D.) became the king of Gujarāt and was initiated into Jainism in 1159 A.D. by Hemacandra (1088-1172 A.D.). After that he made the Jaina religion a state religion in his country. The king himself abandoned hunting, and prohibited the killing of animals, eating meat, drinking, gambling and animal combat. Such types of instances can be ransacked from the pages of history.
It is a fact worth noting here in this connection that in the reign of great Akbar (1556-1605 A.D.) “whose spirit of tolerance and eclectism led him to form the idea of embracing all the Indian creeds in his new Ilahi Din or "Religion of God”--the Jainas obtained a warrant prohibiting the slaughter of animals, etc. wherever their faith was practised". Bholanath Chunder in his Travels of a Hindoo (1869), Vol. I, notes:
"It is a remarkable sanad or document bearing the bonafide seal of Akbar, which has recently come to light, the name under which Pareshnath was known in that emperor's age appears to have been Samet Sikhar. This whole hill together with others in Bihar and Gujarat, was granted to, and bestowed upon Hira Vijaya Suri Acharya, the then pontiff of the Svetāmbara Jaina sect, by Akbar. They were given in perpetuity and there is an especial clause prohibiting the killing of animals either on, below, or about the hills." (pp. 210-11)..
John Tod in his Travels in Western India referring to
