Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India

Author(s): Pranabananda Jash
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

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Jainism in Eastern India
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the district of Patna.32 A few sculptural specimens of the ninth century Ad have been unearthed from this place. A four-armed goddess (c. nine-tenth century AD) probably represents the Jaina Yakṣī, Padmāvati, a unique iconographic specimen from north India.33
Bhadrika or Bhaddiyanagara, famous city in Mahāvira's time, lay in the kingdom of Anga. Panitabhūmi, Paniyabhūmi in Ardhamāgadhi, was a place in Vajrabhūmi,' a division of the pathless country of Rādha.
Alabhika (Pāli, Alavi) is identified by Cunningham and Hoernle with Newal or Nawal in the Unao district in U.P. and Nandalal Dey with Airviwa, 27 miles north-east of Etawah.35 Srāvasti or Sāvatthi or Sāheth-Māheth lies on the borders of Gonda and Bahraich districts of Oudh in the U.P. The city of Śrāvast situated on the bank of the river Acirāvati (Räpti) was the flourishing capital of the kingdom of Kosala in Mahāvīra's time. It was known to the Jainas as Candrapuri or Candrakāpuri. It was the birth-place of Sambhavanātha and Candraprabhānātha.36
Papā or Pāpāpurï where Mahāvira spent his last rainy season is also known Apāpapuri. It was the place where the great teacher left his mortal existence. Unfortunately, the place has been located in different places. According to some scholars it is the same as Käsiä situated on the little Gandak river to the east of the district of Gorakhpur, U.P.,37 while others believe it to be Pāvāpuri of the present day, near Rajgir in Bihar.38
Besides these places of Vassārāsa of the great teacher, there were several other important sites in Bihar where Jainism flourished to a considerable extent. Pāțaliputra (Patna in Bihar), originally a Magadhan village known as Pāțaligrāma, lay opposite to Kotigrāma on the other side of the Ganges. It figures prominently in the Jaina literature; and during the time of Mahāvīra it was the centre of Jaina religion because Pătaligrama was one of the halting stations on the high road exteriding from Rājagļha (where Mahāvira spent fourteen rainy seasons to Vaiśālī (the birth-place of Mahāvira) and other places. It was also the scene of activities of great Jaina monks like Bhadravahu and Sthulabhadra at the later period. The latter monk summoned here a council nearly two hundred years after the demise of Mabāvira to collect the Jaina canonical texts 39 The temple of Sthulabhadra and other Jaina temples have been discovered by the Archaeological Department of the Government of India on the site of Pataliputra. A few Jaina