Vijaydharmasuri

Author(s): A J Sunavala
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

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40 YASHOVIJAYA JAINA PĀTHASHĀLĀ
OVERCOMES THE HOSTILITY OF THE BRAHMANS As had been expected, Dharma Vijaya met at the beginning with the most strenuous opposition. It was not easy to overcome the hostility of the pious Hindus of the place, who would give the new-comers no quarter and no rest. Even those who knew very little or nothing about the Jain religion considered them as pernicious heretics, called them Mlechchhas (es) and Nāstikas (fan) or unbelievers, and treated them as untouchables and outcasts. Undeterred by the difficulties which he had to encounter, and undaunted by the hostility of the Brahmans, Dharma Vijaya visited with his monks the most frequented places of the sacred city,—the recognized seat of the Vedic cult—and, evening after evening, preached to the people, explaining to them the fundamental principles of the Jain religion, not with a view to conversion, but with a view to making those principles known to them, so that they might correct their erroneous beliefs and ideas. Overcoming their suspicions and unreasonable hostility, which had its root in superstition and ignorance rather than in knowledge and wisdom, and which was oftentimes dictated by misunderstanding and misrepresentation rather than by hatred and malevolence, he at last succeeded in winning their good-will and their sympathies. A large building suitable for a college was soon purchased for the Yashovijaya Jaina Pāthashālā, which was now established on a firmer and