YJA Convention 1994 07 Chicago IL First

Author(s): Young Jains of America (YJA)
Publisher: Young Jains of America YJA USA

Page 15

Development of Jainism Outside Bihar
In ethnography it is generally accepted that Jainism started spreading in South India from the third century B.C. i.e. since the time when Bhadrabahu, a preacher of this religion and the head of monks' community, came to Karnatak from Bihar.
But there also exists another viewpoint, viz, that Jainism was known here long before the arrival of Bhadrabahu and that he only infused new life in this old religion. The adherents of God Shiva knew and accepted from Jainism much. This was already known to them from religious teachings-asceticism, the Yoga-asana posture, protection to animals, etc.
In the course of the first century A.D., Jainism spread along south India quite intensively and smoothly. It was widely known in the empire of Satavahanas (whose fall is dated in the third century A.D.) and availed the patronage of rulers of Ganga Dynasties (second to eleventh centuries), early Kadamba (fourth or sixth centuries), Chalukya (sixth to eighth centuries), Pallava (fifth to ninth centuries) and other dynasties. Many rulers built Jain temples and monasteries and set up kitchens for feeding monks.
The modified Brahmanism, as applied to local conditions, became during this period a widely known religious system. Departing from the worship of a majority of Vedic gods, and forbidding to a significant degree sacrifices of animals, Hinduism in the main stream adopted in this epoch in the form of Bhagvatism (from Bhagvat-deity) i.e. the upper deities were set apart from the innumerable gods of Hinduism, as though they were the heads of the pantheon. Gods Shiva and Vishnu, became the chief objects of worship of Bhagvats in south India. And thus two main currents-Shivaism and Vishnuism-took shape in Hinduism.
This was the early epoch of bhakti, the
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By Dr. N.R. Guseva
Religious movement in Hinduism, calling for unlimited, self-renouncing life towards the deity Shiva or Vishnu.
Bhakti-Shivayats (i.e. the fanatic adherents of Shivaism) known by the name of Nayanars and Bhakti-Vishnuits (Alvars) composed hymns in praise of these gods. These hymns serve for the historians as a great and extremely interesting section of literature of the early Middle Ages in south India.
From these sources it can be seen that an enmical relation sprung up between the Jain community and Bhakti-Hinduists in the south toward the middle of the first millennium A.D.
The Jain religion-preachers founded a monastery in the district of South Arcot (modern state of Madras), and named it Pataliputra- evidently in memory of one of the northern strongholds of this religion. The monks in Pataliputra converted a wide strata of local population into Jainism, including several strong rulers of south Indian states as for example, Mahendravarman of the Pallava dynasty (beginning of the seventh century A.D.).
This monastery was not the only influential center of Jainism in the south. The Jain monasteries in Puhar, Urapur, Madurai and in a number of other places in south India acquired fame in the first half of the first millennium A.D.
It is evident that rivalry due to the influences of the Jains on the rulers, and also due to economic benefits (struggle for land, donated to monasteries and temples for rich contributions etc.), served as one of the reasons for the enmity between the communities.
The fight between the Jains and the Bhaktis sometimes led not only to public disputes (in those disputes, the defeated were to adopt the faith of the winner) or to contests in dem