Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

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STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
Ch. If
The mention of the Arabis forms another sheet anchor which has not yet been found in any earliest literature of India except in the Greek topographical account the Periplus of the Erythraen Sea"" and the Nausāri grant of Avanījñaśraya, the governor of Pulakeši II. This evidence of the Periplus indicates a period far anterior to that of the first century A. D. before their actual advent to India and establishment of their rule in Sindhu in the sixth and seventh centuries A, D. respectively. The references to the Arabs thus point to an ante Islamic period in which Arabia and India were closely related by commercial bonds, as it is fully justified by the mention of the Arabian female attendants with their national costumes for the first time in the Bhs. The commercial relation of the Arabs with the Western coast of India in the first century A. D. is corroborated by the peri plus of the Erythræan sea.
The reference to 'Oinarsuya' (Cīnāmśuka), Chinese silken cloth in this canonical text suggests the Indo-Chinese trade-relation which probably began in the first century A. D. or long before that time.
The evidences of the astronomical and astrological conception--the sun, the moon, the planets, etc, and the absence of any allusion to the zodiac, showing no trace of Greek Astronomy in the Bhs should be taken into consideration to determine its date. The Naks:utras and the Vedic quinquennial Yuga still were current during the period of this work. All these facts point to a date of this fifth Anga anterior to the Greek period at least for this part of the text.
All these historical data lead one to the conclusion that the core of the contents and subject-matter of the Bhs existed long before the time of Lord Mahāvīra and it was developed with the passage of time till it attained the final shape of its present size in writing along with the other can onical works in the beginning of the sixth century A. D, at the Vallabhi Council under the presidency of Devarddhi Gamin, the Kşamāśramaņa.
1 Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Schoff L. No. 36, p. 36. ? See the section on tribes and races in the eighth chapter. 3 Bhs, 9, 33, 380.
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