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BHĀNUCANDRA CARITRA
the lords of hell. So long as the intentions of this suppliant at God's courts are just and right, it is sure that whoever devises evil against me will receive retribution according to his merits." (Tūzuk-i-Jahāngīrī or Memoirs of Jahāngir Vol. I, pp. 437–8 Translated by Rogers).
Facts do not bear out the account given above. Jaina monks are prohibited from predicting any one's future by a religious injunction. Māna Simha was never expected to predict anything for any one, and his death by leprosy is a myth. Jaina documents plainly tell us that he died at Medatā (Mertā) on the 13th day of dark half of Paoşa S. Y. 1674. Hindi (Monday 15th December 1617 A. D.) Both Akbar and Jahangir treated him with utmost respect, as will be shown later on. The statement given above was the result of a fit of ill humour. His flatterers had poisoned his ears by constantly telling him evil things about Māna Simha.
During his reign many Jaina idols were consecrated and installed in temples and in the inscriptions of some of them the name of Pātaśāha Jahāngira was also engraved. It is said, some out of malice or fanaticism reported to him that his name was being engraved at the foot of the idols. He was greatly enraged. In order to passify him, his name was engraved on the heads of the idols. (See Inscriptions Nos. 1578 to 1584 of S. Y. 1671 Vaišākha Sudi 3 Saturday and a footnote on p. 131, Nābar II.)
It may be that the views expressed in the memoirs may not be of Jahāngir himself. “It seems very probable that the Emperor kept two or more memoir-writers, to whom he gave directions as to the event they were to record, and a general expression of his opinion on the various subjects to be noticed. It may be that in some instances he wrote down or dictated the words he wished to be recorded, but it is more likely that in most cases his (auto) biographers followed their own bent in composing their respective records.” Elliot's History of India Vol. VI, p. 255.
A writer of Intikhāb-i-Jahăngir-shāhi writes “One day at Ahmedābād it was reported that many of the infidel and superstitious sect of the Seorās (Jains) of Gujarāt had made several very great and splendid temples, and having placed in them their false gods, had managed to secure a large degree of respect for themselves, and that the women who went for worship in those temples were polluted by them and other people. Seorā is à sect of people in whose religion to be always barefooted and bareheaded, is considered as one of the modes of worship; and to drink always warm water, and to pull out the hair of their head and beard, is reckoned as one of the deeds of virtue. They wear no other dress than a shirt of cloth. The Emperor Jahāngir ordered them to be banished from the country, and their temples to be demolished. Their idol was thrown down on the uppermost step of the mosque, that it might be trodden upon by those who came to say their Haily prayers there. By this order of the Emperor, the infidels were excceedingly disgraced, and Islam exalted x x x"[Elliot VI, pp. 451 and 452)
+ The description of Seorās i. e. Jaina monks of Svetambara sect, given above is & malignant misrepresentation. It is false & malicious aspersion to attribute adultery to
