________________
faith was practised. “It was this scrupulous regard”, says Tod, "for the religious opinions of all the varied sects within his mighty realm, that procured this monarch the enviable designation of Jagat Guru, 'the guardian of mankind', and which caused him to be regarded by the Vaisnavas as an incarnation of Kanhaiya. His son, the unstable Jahangir, eventually confirmed this and all their other privileges although, while swerving from the tenets of Islam, he watered amongst the metaphysical sects of the Hindus: on one occasion he had actually commanded the circumcision of all the priests of the Oswals in his dominions,-a fate which was only averted by the tact of an Acarya.72
The following translation of an inscription at Satrunjaya record the benefactions of Akbar, granted apparently in A.D. 1589.
Om ! Obeisance! May the excellent Marudeva 73, the righteous, the first lord, the highest good of the perfectly meritorious, the fish (makara) of the ocean of happiness, be your benefactor; as the Sun in the heavens, spreading his rays, expands the lotuses, so this frontal jewel, by the touch of his lotus feet, has ever proved the source of glory (expander of lotuses) to the Satrunjaya Mountain. May the Lord Sri Varddhamana, a Moon, an asylum of the highest effulgence, born in the lake of the dynasty of Sri Siddhartha Raja, protect you; whose speech explaining the nature of production, existence, and destruction, as well as the origin of the less and greater ceremonial observances, is remarkable for its sweetness and has purified the world.
In the ocean of Varddhamana's succeeding disciples was a Ganadhara named Sudharma 74 as it were the Moon, whose feet were embraced by the hosts of Indra, and was an abode of knowledge. The successors of this wise man having their good minds full of liberality and exceeding joy, like the speech of the lord Vira (Viraprabhu),- even now have
others in Bihar and Gujarat, was granted to, and bestowed upon Hira Vijaya Suri Acarya, the then pontiff of the Svetambara Jaina sect, by Akbar. They were given in perpetuity; and there is an especial clause prohibiting the killing of animals either on, below, or about the hills." Bholanath Chunder, Travels
of a Hindoo (1869), Vol. I. note, pp. 210-211. 72 Tod, Travels in Western India, pp. 290-291.
Marudeva, the son of Marudevi, is synonymous with Rsabhadeva, the first Tirthankara. One of the eleven Ganadharas or Ganadhipas, heads or masters of the Jaina schools, the disciples of Mahavira and teachers of his doctrines. Sudharma was the son of Dhammila, a Brahmana of the Agnivesyayana tribe, and besides Gautama or Indrabhuti, he was the only other Ganadhara present at the death of their master, all the others having died previously. Gautama also died a month after, leaving Sudharma as the last Kevali or possessor of true knowledge.
31
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
