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The Followers of the Ever Growing One
171
not natives of the place, at least of the region to which the manuscripts or inscriptions belong. 103
A return to the original ideal
The manner of life of the Bhattārakas, despite certain positive features on the institutional level, represented a real decadence as regards the spiritual message itself and the way in which it was put into practice. It is said that in the XVIth century, in the regions of the North and Centre, the munis and their rule of life were no longer known, except by name. They belonged to a far distant past.104 The Bhattārakas put the emphasis on a showy and costly performance of ritual worship, to the detriment of spiritual values. This state of affairs made a profound impression on Banārasidāsa, a famous poet and śrāvaka of Āgarā, when, after a long and painful inner pilgrimage, he discovered that the essential resides first of all in knowledge and the realisation of the atman. Through the testimony he bore, by words and in writing, he was the originator of a genuine renewal, which had its beginning in the early years of the XVIIth century. A zealous and captivating personality, as well as being highly gifted and influential, Banārasidāsa set in motion a movement of resistance to the grip of the Bhattarakas on the samgha. He opposed all the errors that had conduced to decadence and aimed at a return to the original ideal. He studied and meditated with fervour upon the works of Acārya
103 It must also be added that the drawing of state-boundaries on a linguistic basis is of very recent date. Previously the country was divided into bigger or smaller kingdoms, whose boundaries changed along with their sovereigns in the wake of local battles. It is fairly easy, either by taking the names of the regions of antiquity or, more so, the name of towns still existing in our own days, to locate these documents in contemporary states. Furthermore, the various documents referring to the Bhattarakas and others also to which we have recourse do not always give the exact name of a place, but we can, in the case of the Bhattārakas, assign them to a place fairly accurately from the name of their sākha. As for their dates, they do not always correspond to the time in which a particular sadhvi or āryikā lived, but sometimes to the time in which the document in which she is mentioned was written. It is not possible, therefore, to follow a systematic order, for each group of texts must be considered in the context to which it belongs.
104 Cf. R.K. Jain, 1966, p.43.
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