Temples of Kumbhariya

Author(s): M A Dhaky, U S Moorty
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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CHAPTER 1
Jainism in Gujarat: Historical and Socio-Religious Perspective
The classical Jainism had developed from early Nirgranthism. It was, in fact, formulated and shaped principally through the progressive integration of the doctrines, dogmas, and early scholastic formulations of the sect of Arhat Pārsva (c. B.C. 6th-5th cent.) and the stern ascetical discipline as well as resolutely uncompromising insistence on the total purification of Self (ātā=ātman) from passions (dosas/kasāyas) of the sect of Arhat Vardhamāna (who a little later was called Jina Mahāvīra, c. B.C. 549-477 or 472-400 ?). The two sects originally thus represented separate Nirgranthist systems. In the context of the present day Gujarat, the Nirgrantha religion apparently was introduced first into its Surāstra or Saurāştra territory, predictably in the time of prince Samprati (c. B.C. 232-210), son of the blinded prince Kuņāla and grandson of the Maurya emperor Asoka. Samprati, who believably was ruling over the western half of Asoka's imperial domains, came under the influence of Nirgranthism by the preachings of Arya Suhasti, the disciple of Arya Sthūlabhadra and junior confrère of Arya Mahāgiri. According to the "Sthavirāvalī" (hagiological list) of the Paryusaņākalpa (Phase III portion, c. A.D. 100), from one of the disciples of Arya Suhastī, namely Arya Rsigupta, emanated a branch of friars called Soratthiyā/Saurāştrikā which would imply that, by early second century B.C., there already were Nirgrantha followers in Gujarat.
According to Jinadāsa gani Mahattara—the āgamic commentator of the last quarter of the seventh century-Arya Kālaka (Arya Syāma I: c. 1st cent. B.C.-A.D.) got his nun-sister Sarasvatī released from the captivity of Gardabhilla, apparently a barbarian/tyrannical ruler of Bhrgukaccha (Bharuch in Lātadeśa or southern Gujarat), with the help of the Sakas of Pārasa kula. He, moreover, composed three major works—the Prathamānuyoga, the Gandikānuyoga, and the Lokānuyoga-as reported in the Pancakalpa-bhāşya (c. mid 6th cent. A.D.) of Sanghadāsa gani. The first of these three works introduced the concept of the 24 Jinas (along with their