________________
to. 4. HISTORICAL POSITION OF THE T. S.
evidence, while Majumdar places Buddhagupta (477 acc.- 495 A. D.) prior to Narasimhagupta. Vasubandhu is said by Paradārtha to have died at the age of eigbty. Exactly when the Abhidharmakosa was written is not yet known.
Royal favour if not patronage that the Buddhists enjoyed during this dynasty is not recorded as to the Jainas. Fa Hien refers to the nirgranthas in Kapiša, Lanpo and Simhapura (700 miles from Taxila), but does not record as to the area of North India proper. Hiuen Tsiang who came to India in the middle of the 7th century saw nunerous nirgranthas in the North, e. g., Mt. Vipula in Magadha, Vārānāsi, Vaiśāli, Pundravardhana and Sanataţa in Bengal.25 Not many Jaina inscriptions during the Gupta age are available, for instance, we have only a few belonging to the 5th century which record the activities of the Jainas in the North : 1) Udayagiri cave (near Sanchi) inscription of 426 A. D. mentioning the erection of a statue of Pārsva, 26 2) Mathurā inscription of 432 A. D. made by a lay disciple of Koţika gali V.iyathiri sikhi registering a dedication to an image of Jina27 3) Kahāum pillar inscription of 460-61 A. D. referring to the dedication of five images of Tirthankaras, and] 4) A copp?r-plate inscription of 478–79 A. D. at Pahārpur Rajishahi Dist. of Beagal) stating a Brah nin couple's land donation for the sake of - maintaining worship in a Jaina vihāra.28 This phenomenon of the paucity of inscrip:ion in th: Gupta age is coatrastin to the previous Kushan dynasty wherein the Jaina inscriptions at Mathurā are abundant What does this phenomenon signify and how did it happen? These questions remain to be invesigated.
(2) Migration of Jaina communities
Behind the seeming silence of the Jaina activities 'evinced by the paucity of inscriptions during the Gupia age, a monumental series of the historical events seems to hive taken placo-the gradual miss migration of the Jainas from the North to the South and th: West, and the greit schis n into the present day Digambaras and Svetāmbaras. These are the vital issues in the history of the Jainas, however the existent literature and inscriptions of both traditions do not speak of them in clartiy which have thus sunkea into obilvion and been burried in darkness. The following is an attempt to explain and reconstruct these bistorical events from the available archaeological and literary evidences in the background of the Gupta age.
The migration of the Jainas to the South must go back to a considerably ancient time, for instance, the Aśokan period, if śramaņi mentioned in Kalsi Rocķ Edict XIII at Malakālmuru, Mysore, is taken in the sense of both Buddhist and Jaina monks.29 A tradition also exists in the West that Samprati, grandson of Asoka, sent the Jaina missionaries to the non-Aryan countries meaning to the South 30 Hatbigumphă inscriptions of Kharavla, the 2nd century B. c., reveal that the king was an adherent of Jainism.31 Kalugumalai hill inscription
116
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
