Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India

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

Page 123

Jainism in Eastern India
9s
ed with Pārsva, Ambikā with Neminátha, etc. These deities are referred to in a number of Jaina texts, but their functions are described elaborately in the texts of the Digambaras, who have secret texts devoted to these deities, wherein their forms, names, symbols, weapons, etc., are described. 119 Even the Jainas agree with the Brähmaņas alone in ascetic self-torture, which Buddhism vehemently opposes. Not only to these, the Jainas even observed, of course, in the later period, festivals and fasts which are distinctly Hindu festivals, viz., Gaņeśa-caturthi, Ananta-caturdasi, Diväli, Rakşābandhana, etc.120 With the fusion of some of these Brāhmaṇical traditions into it, Jainism gradually lost its followers and it became ultimately a religion of few mercantile families of western and southern India. In other states their number is negligible in comparison to other major sects.
REFERENCES
Jaina Journal, April, 1969, pp. 148ff. *Supra, the table of the tirtharkaras, pp. 22-25. BC. Law, Some Jaina Canonical Sūtras. *AN, 3.74. 'Uttaradhyāya-sutta, ch. XX. * Aupapatika-sütra, 30. ?Parisi şta-parvan, VI, 34.
ibid., V, 208. 'V.A. Smith, EHI, p. 154. 1V.A. Sangave, Jaina Community, p. 379. 1R.G. Basak, Aśokan Inscriptions, Pillar Edict VII, pp. 111-12. 1° Parisişsaparvan, XI, pp. 89ff. 18 Brhat-kalpa-bháşya, III, gāthas, 3285-8917, 917-21. 14 All India Oriental Conference, XXVI, 1972. 15JRAS, 1908, p. 852.
16 The Ānava kingdom, the nucleus of which was Anga, became divided into five kingdoms, said to have been named after five sons of king Bali. Pargiter opines that the Anavas held all East Bihar, Bengal proper and Orissa compris. ing the kingdoms of Anga, Vanga, Pundra, Suhma and Kalinga (Ancient Indian Historical Tradition, p. 293). All these people were belonged to the same community. Ethnographically they were connected with the Kalingas and oiher peoples of the plains of Bengal (Cambridge History of india, p. 534).
11B C. Law, Some Jaina Canonical Surras, p. 176. 18 Ibid., HGAI, pp. 205, 214ff. 1.Kalpa-sútra, p. 135. *°C.J. Shah, op. cit., p. 93. 11 Uvāsagadasão (ed., Hoernle), p. 2 fn.