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LITERATURE
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create a harmony in the cultural atmosphere of the country, and contributed largely to its cultural unity and allround progress which the forgien travellers visiting India, in early mediaeval times, could not but envy.
In its heyday, Jainism also played an outstanding role in the sphere of public instruction. Dr. A.S. Altekar writes, "They (the Jainas) seem to have taken active part in the education of the masses. That before the beginning of the alphabet proper, the children should be required to pay homage to Ganesa by reciting the formula Śrī-Gaṇeśāya namaḥ, is natural in Hindu society, but that in the Deccan even today it should be followed by the Jaina formula Om namah Siddhebhyaḥ shows as Mr. C.V. Vaidya has pointed out, that the Jaina teachers of that age (i.e. the Rāstrakūta age, circa 700-1000 A.D.) had so completely controlled the mass education that the Hindus continued to teach their children this original Jaina formula even after the decline of Jainism." The same Jaina formula in its corrupt form, Onā-māsī-dham, has been in similar use in many indigenous schools (pāțhaśālās) in parts of northern and central India as well.
Numerous Jaina establishments, during the ancient and medieval periods, were vertable centres of learning, some of them serving as great Vidyāpithas, regular colleges or seminaries, which had arrangements for the education to the general public, and also gave specialised instruction to persons of royal families and of higher classes. Food and medicine were also provided for in the Jaina Marhas or establishements, and provision was, no doubt, made for the teaching of Jaina scriptures and religious lore, besides secular subjects.
This state of affairs had been conspicuous for several centuries till the 12th-13th century A.D., after which there set in a general decline due to change of conditions. Still many Jaina establishments and institutions continued to function until modern
