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One
of the reasons why it is difficult to trace the history of Jainism
quickly is that India for much of the past 2000 years was not a
single state but a large number of small, and some large, states
with shifting frontiers each with its own history.
The major event, of course, was the gradual extension of Jainism from its
homelands in eastern India into the south, and then into western
India, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
Unfortunately we know little about how this actually
happened. Doubtless Jain Monks, traveling as always on foot,
crossed India and made converts in the lands they passed through.
Probably Jain businessmen, then as now, took their faith to
distant parts.
Other travelers also might have helped. Certainly Jainism
had reached Gujarat more than 2000 years ago.
From the early fourth century A.D. until around
600 A.D. Northern India, down as far as modern Bombay, was under the
control of the emperors of the Gupta dynasty. Doubtless the unified
control facilitated contacts across India. In the Gupta period
Gujarat seems to have become the most important centre of Jainism in
India if we are to judge from the fact that the great council, when
the holy scriptures were finally put into writing around 460 A.D.,
was held at Valabhi in Gujarat. Some sixty or seventy years later
Jain scriptures were read at a ceremony of mourning for the death of
the king's son even though the king himself was not a Jain. Apart
from Gujarat, Jainism was well established in many parts of India by
the Gupta period: it was certainly already present in Rajasthan by
then.
An unusual account of India was given by a
visitor from China who travelled there in the earlier seventh
century A.D . He has many references to Jains and it does appear
that, at least in the places which he visited, the Digambara were at
that time the stronger section. However the Svetambara
were beginning to increase in Gujarat and Rajasthan, particularly
because they gained the support of the kings of Gujarat.
Many great Jain scholars contributed to Jain learning as well
as to many other subjects. One of the greatest was the famous Acharya
Hemachandra from Gujarat (1089-1172 A.D.). The king of Gujarat,
Kumarapala, was his staunch follower. Hemachandra wrote very widely
on a range of scientific and literary subjects, commentaries on
ancient texts, poetry, works on logic, yoga and grammar, and a lot
more. He wrote a major work on the duties of both lay people and
monks. Large number of sects developed amongst the Svetambara from
the seventh century A.D. onwards, traditionally they numbered
eighty-four, though not many of them survive today. They certainly
at test to the vitality of Jainism in these centuries, a golden age
for the faith.
In south India, from the fifth century
onwards for some seven hundred years, Jains also received the
patronage of royalty and many kings favored them in one way or
another. Great poets and writers flourished. Under royal patronage
Jinasena wrote a great unfinished epic which was completed by his
pupil Gunabhadra in the year 897 A.D. This long work includes much
moral teaching on the duties of a Jain and is much respected by the
Digambara scholars. In the south one of the great centres of Jainism
was Sravana Belgola, noted for its colossal Jain image, still an
important centre of pilgrimage today, and in earlier times a centre
for Jain influence across the southern regions. Jainism flourished
during this period with large numbers of adherents in all classes of
society.
However Jainism began to lose ground
eventually. The development of popular personal religious movements
in Hinduism with a warm devotion to a god led many away from the
religion of Mahavira. The Hindu followers of both Vishnu and Siva
increased in numbers and the contest between the newly revived Hindu
cults and the Jains became strong, then bitter and finally in some
cases led to violence against the Jains. Although we must not over
stress this (for Hinduism andJainism have co-existed happily nearly
always), Jainism in south India did suffer a decline from which it
never recovered, at least to its earlier strength.
Dedicated and faithful Jains continued to practice their
religion with enthusiasm, as they do today, but their numbers were
fewer.
In the north, too, Jainism lost ground. From the
thirteenth century A.D. the Muslim conquests in north India affected
Jains badly. At times Jain temples (and Hindu ones as well) suffered
damage or destruction by the conquerors. At the sametime there seems
to have been a decline in religious fervor and practice. Numbers
declined and Jainism became confined mainly to the merchant and
business class.
However, again we must not over stress the decline; Jainism
did decline in numbers, and at times in standards, Jains continued
to produce great scholars and many devoted saints.
Jains, as a pacific group in society, valued for financial
and business acumen, enjoyed a fair measure of tolerance and,
indeed, were not infrequently employed in important government
positions. Temple building and the arts continued to flourish. In the
sixteenth century the Mogul emperor Akbar, the greatest Mogul ruler,
although a Muslim, had close contacts with a Jain monk Hirvijaya
Suri. Akbar called Hirvijaya to his court in 1582 and the monk and
the emperor had long conversations on questions of religion and
philosophy. Inspired by these the emperor was moved to impose
restrictions on the killing of animals in his domains and himself
gave up his favorite sport of hunting.
While the Muslims dominated north and central
India, in the south the great Hindu empire of Vijayanagar ruled from
the early fourteenth century to the late sixteenth century A.D. Here
the Jains were protected by the rulers and many took an important
part in public life, in government and the army, as well as in
finance, trade and learning. In view of the Jain insistence on
non-violence, it may become as a surprise to some to learn that Jain
laymen have sometimes been prepared to hold military positions. The
question whether the rules of ahimsa,
non-violence, permit the necessary defense of one's country
is usually answered by the argument that a measure of
necessary harm is unavoidable for the lay person, though of course
strictly precluded for the monk or nun. In all honesty, however, we
may well question whether the military
exploits of some Jain rulers in Indian history have not
strayed beyond the bounds of unavoidable violence.
The building of temples and the installation of images
has long been a tradition of Jainism but one development has beenthe
emergence of a branch of the Svetambara Jains which does not accept
the worship of images. The Sthanakvasi
sect originated in the late seventeenth century, though its
roots are traced back as far as 1394 in another group which rejected
images. Although the majority of Jains adhere to the ancient rituals
and images, the Sthanakvasi, who meet in plain meditation halls, have
attracted many adherents and have produced many learned and pious
members.
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