Religion and Culture of the Jains

SR No.: 014007
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: D C Sirkar
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1973
Total Pages: 168
Language: English
Classification: Seminar & Articles
File Size: 10 MB

Page 138

S. P. SINGH
The continuity of Jainism at Pataliputra in the 1st-2nd century A.D. is proved by the Tattvärthasutra of Umāsväti, which is held in esteem by both the Śvetambara and Digambara Jains and was composed in the city towards the beginning of the Christian era." 23 Jainism in this period appears to have attracted the Murundas of Patna. The Bṛhatkalpavrtti refers to a Murunda king af Pațaliputra, who was a pious Jain and whose widowed sister had also embraced the same faith.2* The Padalipta-prabandha of the Prabhavakacarita relates the story how Padalipta cured king Murunda of Pāţaliputra of his terrible headache. 25
123
At the time of Hiuen-tsang's visit (629-645 A.D.), the cities of Pataliputra and Vaiśāli were in ruins. He refers to several hundred Samghārāmas at Vaiśāli, which were mostly dilapidated. The followers of the Nirgranthas (Jain ascetics), he says, were numerous. This seems to be the last definite evidence of the existence of Jainism in North Bihar. No antiquity or inscription belonging to the subsequent periods have been found in North Bihar. 27
2 &
The city of Pataliputra appears to have been destroyed about 50 years before Hiuen-tsang's visit. According to a Jain work called Tilthogali Painniya, king Caturmukha Kakli was persecuting the Jains, and their preceptors advised them to leave Pataliputra ;* he also predicted that
23 Tattvärthasutra, Intro., p. 4; cf. Altekar and Mishra, loc. cit. 24 Altekar and Mishra, op. cit., pp. 10f.
25 See Mohanlal Jhaveri, Nirvāṇakalikā of Pädaliptācārya, Intro., p. 10; Pādalipta-prabandha, vv. 44, 59. 61; cf. S. Chattopadhyay, Early History of North India, p. 144.
26 Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World, Vol. II, 1934, p. 66. The Jain tradition speaks of the existence of Jain shrines at Vaiśālī. The Uvāsagadasão refers to a Jain temple at Kollaga (modern Kolhua) bearing the name Duipalāsa. There was a stupa at Vaiśāli dedicated to Munisuvrata. See the Avasyakacūrṇi of Jinadāsa (c. 676 A.D.) pp. 223ff., 567.
27 Cf. P. C. Nahar, Jain Inscriptions (Jaina-lekha-Saṁgraha), Vols. I-II; also Thakur, op. cit., p. 148.
*[There are some errors here. Probably Tirthodgărița and Kalki are intended.-Ed.]