Jainism and Karnataka Culture

SR No.: 011062
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S R Sharma
Publisher: Karnataka Historical Research Society Dharwar
Publication Year: 1940
Total Pages: 263
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

Page 205

IDEALISM AND REALISH
161
they do not marry widows, except among the Pancamas ;123 they observe fasts, festivals, ceremonials, quite like other Hindus; 124 child-marriages also take place among the Jainas ;125 they burn the dead, throw the ashes on the third day into a river, and even offer rice-balls to the crows on the tenth day, and feed relatives and caste-fellows on the twelfth and thirteenth days 126 A detailed consideration of these and other points, interesting as they may be, would take us far beyond our limits. But a few of the more striking features which have crept into Jaina society, especially in contradiction to their avowed theories and practices, might be described with advantage.
Jainism, being like Buddhism an anti-Vedic movement, must have cast off the sacred thread of the Brāhmaṇas, in conformity with their democratic denunciation of caste. But, with the resumption of this institution, in practice though not in theory, the Digambaras of Karnāțaka also adopted its most distinctive symbol. It does not seem unlikely that great converts to the Jaina faith from Brāhmanical ranks, like for instance, Gangarāja 127 and Vādiganghala Bhatta, 128 might have insisted upon retaining the marks of their social status, even after their formal acceptance of the new creed. The concession once made
123 Ibid., p. 103; Dharwar, op. cit. pp., 116–17. Now the practice
appears to have been changed, among some. 124 Cf. Bhandarkar, op. cit., p. 119; Belgaum, op. oit., pp. 102-3. 125 Mhurston, op. cit., pp. 432-33. 126 Ibid. Contrast this with what Yasodhara says to his mother in tho
Yas'astilaka-Campu by Somadeva: The spirits of ancestors have either entered other bodies or passed away into the land of spirits, in neither of which cases they stand in need of oblations which are
devoured by crows'. Cf. Peterson, op. cit. IV, p. 44. 127 Gangarāja is spoken of as a Purifier of the Kaundinya.gotra, chief of
the Karnāta Brahmans' in Ep. Car. V Belūr 124, traps., p. 8.' 128 The Kudlur Plates of Mārasimha record the grant made by Mürasimba
Ganga to Vādigangbala Bhatta, his precaptor, a great Jaina disputant, who is therein described as born in an illustrious and learned Brhman family, noted for its Vedic Study and sacrifices'. Ct. Mysore
Archaeological Report, 19.1, pp. 23-4, 110-2628-21