Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India

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

Page 98

CHAPTER FOUR
Jainism in Eastern India
Bihar THE flourishing condition of Jainism in the Vaiśāli-Rajgir regions since the time of its inception is an established fact. We have seen earlier that Bihar was the birth-place of the three tirthankaras; Śitalanātha was born on the Kuluha hill in the Chatra sub-division of Hazaribagh district, where a large number of Jaina antiquities can be found. According to Stein, “Inside (the grotto) is a wellpreserved inage of the Jina Pārsvanātha, seated and surmounted by the usual snakehood. Close to the west of this is another small grotto containing a seated Jina in the conventional posture. As the ciñha engraved on the pedestals is effaced, the Jina intended cannot be ascertained.”! The twentieth tirthankara, Munisuvrata born in Rājagļha, modern Rajgir in Bihar, where three great Jaina Munis, viz., Gautama Svāmi, Sudharma Svāmi and Jambu Svāmī, were born and had obtained their nirvūna. The twenty-first tirthankara, Neminātha was born in Mithilā which is identified with the modern Janakapura, a small town on Nepal border, north of which the Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga districts meet. Moreover, twenty-two tirthankıras had attained their hirvāṇa in different places centering round Anga-Magadha regions.
Rulers of these regions since the days of its organisation rendered patronage to the Jaina community, which possibly testifies to the long acquaintance of its population with Jainism. B.C. Law makes the following observation on the prevalence of Jainism in Bjhar-"Anga- Magadha, the territories of the Vrji-Licchavis, and Mallas and the kingdom of Kāśi Kośala are mentioned as the places which became the scene of wanderings of Mahāvīra and activities of his Nirgrantha followers in the Buddha's life-time. The Buddhist texts specifically mention Rājagțha, Nālandā, Vesali