Studies in South Indian Jainism

Author(s): M S Ramaswami Ayyangar, B Seshagiri Rao
Publisher: M S Ramaswami Ayyangar

Page 95

JAIN REMAINS.
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Kanara, North Arcot and South Arcot alone containing more than 23,000 Jains. The majority of these scattered remnants are pobr cyltivators, ignorant, illiterate and all unconscious of the noble history and spacious traditions of their fathers. Their brethren in the north who represent a survival of early 'Jainism are comparatively better off in life, most of them being wealthy traders, merchants and moneylenders.1
1
remains.
The vast Jain remains in South India of muti- The Jain lated statues, deserted caves and ruined temples at once recall to our mind the greatness of the religion in days gone by and the theological rancour of the Brahmins who wiped it out of all active existence. The Jains had been forgotten; their traditions have been ignored; but, the memory of that bitter struggle between Jainism and Hinduism, characterised by bloody episodes in the south, is constantly kept alive in the series of frescoes on the wall of the Mantapam of the Golden Lily Tank of the famous Minakshi Temple at Madura. These paintings illustrate the persecution and impaling of the Jains at the instance of the arch-enemy of Jainism, Tirujñānasambandar. As though this were not sufficient to humiliate that unfortunate race, the whole tragedy is gone through at five of the twelve annual festivals at the Madura temple. It is, indeed, sad to reflect that, beyond the
1 Imperial Gazeteer, Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, pp. 17, 18 and 227.