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THE JAINS IN THE DECCAN.
literature composed in the various vernaculars of the country. But it is a mistake to suppose that these ascetics were indifferent towards secular affairs in general. To a certain extent it is true that they did not mingle with the world. But we know from the account of Megasthenes. that, so late as the fourth century B.C., “The Sarmanes or the Jain Sarmanes who lived in the woods were frequently consulted by the kings through their messengers regarding the cause of things." Jain Gurus have been founders of states that for centuries together were tolerant towards the Jain faith, but the prohibition of blood-shedding so emphatically preached by the Jain moral code led to the political debasement of the whole Jain race. In this part of the inquiry, an attempt is made to indicate, in rough outlines, the nature of the vast political influence weilded by the Jains in that part of India, represented in modern geography by the Bombay Presidency and the Native States of Mysore, and to trace the steps by which that political ascendancy was lost.
It will, perhaps, be better if the general reader remembers the following points regarding the political history of the Deccan :
(1) The Gangas exercised their sway over the greater part of Mysore from the second century A.D. to the eleventh century A.D., when they were overthrown by the Cholas. The
M'Crindle, Fragments of Journal of the Rojal Asiatic Megasthenes.
Socisty, Vol. IX, p. 172.
Periods of Deccan bistory
