History of The Digambaras
By Mr. A. K. Roy
The history of the Digambara Church after Mahavira can generally be divided into four periods. These periods differ from one another not because each of them necessarily has any special characteristic, but mainly because each of the preceding period from the last is shrouded in more and more obscurity, with the result that we know practically nothing substantial about the first of these four periods, known a little more about the second, and so on. These periods are as follows :
(a) The first five or six centuries after Mahavira, i.e. the period between Mahavira and the beginning of the Christian era.
(b) The eight centuries from the beginning of the Christian era. This may be called the period of the Acharyas.
(c) The Period of the dominance of Bhattarakas, i.e. upto the 17th/18th century to the present day.
The First Six Centuries : As stated above, the first five or six centuries in the history of the Digambara sect are hidden in obscurity. We know almost nothing about the history of this sect as a separate Jaina Church in these centuries. (The reason most probably was that the two Churches had not till then separated, and as such they had no separate history). The Digambaras unlike the Shetambaras have not written any history of there sect, and all that we have are some lists of successive partriarchs. Not much reliance can be placed on these lists for they were compiled many centuries later. In fact the first list that we possess is the one inscribedin Sravana Belgola in about A.D. 600, that is almost eleven centuries after Mahavira, This Sravana-belogola succession list is as follows:
Mahavira - Gautama - Lohacharya - Jambu - Vishnudeva - Aparajita - Govardhan - Bhadrabaju - Vishakha - Prosthila - Karttikarya (Kshattirikarya) Jaya - Nama (Naga) Siddharatha - Dhritisena - Buddhila, etc.
It will be noticed that the difference with the Shvetambara list starts almost form the very beginning. The name of Gautama as successor of Mahavira is not mentioned in the Shvetambara list as given in the Kalpa-Sutra. In fact the Kalpasutra explicitly mentions that only two ganadharas, Indrabhuti and Sudharma, survived Mahavira and it was Sudharma who succeeded Mahavira as head of the Chruch and no other ganadhara left any spiritual descendants. Indrabhuti who was a list as the first successor of Mahavira. Both the sects are in agreement in asserting that Indrabhuti Gautama was a Kevalin, but Shvetambaras deny that he ever headed the Church, or left any disciples.
The confusion is carried on to the next time also. Many Digambara lists including the Sravana Belogola inscription say that Gautama's successor as the head of the Church was Lohacharya. The name Lonacharya is not known to Shvetambaras. Other Digamabra list (e.g. the one in the Harivansha Purana) mention Sudharma as the successor of Gautama. Fortunately, Lohacharya and Sudharma as the successor of Gautama. Fortunately, Lohacharya and Sudharma are the names of the same person. This is explicitly stated in Jambuddviva Pannati (I.10).
In the Digambara list Lohacharya's and in the Shvetambara list Sudharma's successor is Jambusvami. Here for the first and last time the Digambara and Shvetambara lists agree in regard to the other of succession.
(Digambaras and Shetambaras both agree that after Mahavira, inly three persons, namely, Gautama, Sudharma and Jambu became kevalins).
The next three names in the Sravana Belgola list (A. D. 600) are Vishnudeva, Aparajita and Govardhana. Later Digambara works such as the Harivansha Purana (late 8th century) include the name of Nandimitra between Vishnudeva and Aparajita. The present day Digambaras accept this later list of four names. However, none of these names are known to the Shevtambars. They have instead the following three names: Prabhava, Shayyambna (or Shayyambhava) and Yoshobhadra. Shayyambhava as we have seen was the author of the Dashavikalika, one of the most importent texts of the Shvetambaras, but the Digambaras neither know his name, nor recognize the book.
The successor of Govardhana in the Digambara list is Bhadrabahu. In the Shvetambara list, the corresponding place is occupied by two persons : Bhadrabahu and Sambhutavijaya who were joint patriachs of the Church. Bhadrabahu who has according to the Sravan Belgola inscription (A.D. 600) predicted a famine in Ujjayini which led the Jaina community there to leave for South India under the leadership of one Prabhachandra (or, according to the later versions, he himself led the Jaina community (of Magadha?) to South India). It will be Digambara reference say that Bhadrabahu himself went to the south India. But the later Digambara tradition is insistent that it was Bhadrabahu who introduced Jainism to South India. The difficulty can be solvel if we acept that it was another Bhadrabahu appears as the 27th acharya in the Digambara llist (the Shevtamanga only, and not shrutakevali like Bhadrabahu I, who knew all the 12 angas. Bhadrabaju II died 515 years after the Nirvana (i.e. in 12 B.C.) and we know that he belonged to South India calls himself the pupil of Bhadrabahu
The matter is slightly confusing here for according to the patavalis of the Digambaras, Kundakunda was not the first but the fourth acharya after Bhadrahahu II. The actual lilst is as follows : 1. Bhadrabahu II. 2. Guptigupta. 3. Maghanandi I. 4. Jinacandra I. 5. Kundakunda.
Perhaps the solution of this problem is that all these four persons form Guptigupta to Kundakunda were pupils of Bhadrabahu II, and became acahryas one after another.
Now to go back to Bhadrabahu I, he was as we know the last shrutakevali. The acharayas who came after him were dashapurvis i.e. they knew the 11 angas and the 10 purvas. Their names were : 1. Visakha 2. Dhritisena 3. Kshatria 4. Jayasena 5. Nagasena 6. Siddhartha 7. Dhritisena 8. Vijaya 9. Buddhilinga 10. Deva I 11. Dharasena. Except for their names we know nothing about them.
They were followed by ekadashangis, who knew only the eleven angas. Their names were : 1. Nakshatri 2. Jayapalaka 3. pandava 4. Dhruvasena and 5. Kansa.
Then came the upangis, who only knew one anga. They were : 1. Subhadra 2. Yashobhadra 3. Bhadrabahu II and 4. Lohacarya II.
Lastly there were the ekangis. They had only fragmentary knowledge of the canon. Their names were : 1. Arhadvali 2. Maghanandi 3. Dharasena 4. Pushpadanta and 5. Bhutavali.
It is from the period of the ekangis, i.e. Arhadvali, Maghanandi, Dharsena, Pushpadanta and Bhutavali onwards that we get some material facts about the Digambara acharyas. All these five were perhaps the disciples of Bhadrabahu II.
It is said that it was Arhadvali who had divided the Original Church (the Mula Sangha) into four different sanghas, namely, Sinha, Nandi, Sena and Deva. "This we learn from the Nitisara composed by Indrananbdin between 1524 and 1565 and from the pattavalis of the last century". It is, of Course, not possible to say whether this story of Arhadvali dividing the Mula Sangha into four branches is correct or not. None of these branches exist today, and even the first mention of this division is almost thirteen hundred years after the alleged event.
It is said that Dharasena, the third among the ekagis named above was the last master of the Astanga Mahanimitta the " eightfold Mahanimittas". What these Mahanimittas were is not clear, but they seem to have something to do with astrology has preclairvoyance, for it was with this power that Bhadrabahu had predicted the 12-year famine in Ujjayini as we know form the Sravana Belgola inscription (A.D. 600) : "Bhadrabahu - svamina Ujjayinyam astanga - mahanimitta - tatvajnena - trailokya - darshina, nimittena dvadasha samvatshara-kala vaisamyam uplabhya". ( By Bhadrabahu-svamin, who possessed the knowledge of the Eight Mahanimittas, the seer of the past, present and future, was foretold by the signs a dire calamity in Ujjayini, lasting for a period of 12 years).
Dharasena also had a partial knowledge of the canonical words like the angas, purvas , etc. Dharasena according to the legend, lived in Girnar, in Saurastra. He sent a message to the Digambaras of the South India warning them against the disappearance of the knowledge of the canons. The monks of Dakshinpatha then sent to intelligent persons to Dharasena . Dharasena passed on his knowledge to these two peorsons whose names were Pushpadanta and Bhutavalli. These two returned home and wrote an importent work Shat-Khandagama-Sutra based on that teaching. This work thus is revered among the Digambaras almost as a canonical work. The work was completed on the fifth of the bright fortnight of Jyestha : and that day is thus celebrated every year as Shruta-panchami,
The Period of the Acharyas
Kundakunda : Evidence either literary or in stone inscriptions about the existence of Jainism in South India before the Christian era has not been found. However, we can by inference presume the existence of the Jains at that time in Karnataka. Kundakunda, the great acharya and prolific writer of books on Jainism was living in the first century A.D. It is quite inconceivable that such a writer could have flourished unless there was as old tradation of Jains in that area, There must have been enough well read Jainas in south Karnataka to provide a readership for kundakunda's works. Moreover, kundakunda wrote in Prakit (which was akin to Shauraseni i.e. the language of the Mathura region) and this would be a language quite familiar to the local people other than the learned among the Jainas.
As we have seen, it was Kundakunda who provided some of the philosophical taxts of the Digambara Church. In fact he is venerated almost as a ganadhara, that is as if he was as knowledge as one of the immediate disiples of Mahavira. As time passed he gained in miraculous powers, and in an inscription at Sravana-Belgola dated A. D. 1398, it is said that when Kundakunda walked his feet would be four fingers above the ground.
Many palces calim Kundakunda as their is a village called Konda or Kunda few kilometers from the Guntakkal railway station (i.e. practically on the borders of the Andhra and Karnataka states), and this village is said to have been the place where he was born. This would substanitiate the claim that Kundakunda belonged to karnataka. On the other hand it has also been suggested that he lived in Kanchi, because his place of work was said to have been in that same area.
There is in fact some difficulty about his exact name also. He is said to have had the following names : Vakragriva, Elacarya Gridhrapincha, Padmanandi and Kundakunda , but so far as the first four names are concerned, there in the later centuries. Thus it will be safer to call him by the name of Kundakunda only.
Umasvami or Umasvati : The most celebrated acharya among the Digambaras after Kundakunda was Umasvami. In the South India inscriptions he is mentioned immediately after Kundakunda, which implies that he was a disciple on Kundakunda. Umasvati had the epithet Gridhrapinca or Gridhapiccha, "Vulture's feather", which Kundakunda had too. According to most of the digambara pattavalis, he lived from about A. D. 135 to 219.
The Shvetambars on the other hand think that his name was Umasvati. He was so called because his mother's name was Uma Vatsi, and father's Svati. The name of his teacher was Ghosanandi Kshamashramana. About his period the Shvetambara traditions differ, but in any case none of them is in a agreement with the Digambara tradition.
It is not certain that he belonged to South India, for he wrote his work Tattvarthadhigama-sutra "the Manual for the Understanding of the True Nature of Things" in Pataliputra. This manual in Sanskrit is recognized as and authority by both Digambaras and Shvetambars. Winternitz wrote, "Even at the present day (this work) is read by all Jainas in private houses and temples. By reading this book once through one is said to acquire as much as merit as by fasting for one day. The logic, psychology, cosmography, ontology and ethics of the Jaina are treated in these sutras and in the commentary appended by the author himself, in the closest possible agreement agreement with the canon, more specially with Anga VI (jnatadharmakathah). Even today it may still serve as an exellent summary of Jainas dogmatics. It is true that the commentary, which expresses views that are not in harmony with those of the Digambaras is not recognized by this sect as the work of Umasvami. It is doubtful therefore, whether the Dighambaras are justified in claiming him as one of their own. However Umasvami is and important writer for the Digambaras. They honour him as an equal o9f the Shrutakevlins of old (shrutakevalidesiya), and would not like to surrender him to the Shvetambaras. The Shvetambaras also greatly respect Umasvati, and give him the epithets purvavit "knower of ancient texts" and vacakacarya "master reciter". Umasvami or Umasvati is said to have been prolific writer and said to have written about 500 books. Very few of these are known today. The Digambars think that the Puja-Prakarana, Prasamarati, and Jambudvipasamasa are his works.
Among the early commentators of Umasvami's Tattvarthadhigama-sutra was Siddhasena Divakara. He was perhaps the last acharya to be claimed by both the sects. However, his name does not appear in the Digambaras Pattavalis of South India).
Samantabhadra : According to a pattaavali given in an inscription of 1163 A. D. at Sravana Belgola, Umasvati's disciple was Balakapiccha, and his disciple was Samantabhadra. He is also styled 'Svami' and referred to with reverence by later acharyas. Digambaras place the period in which he flourished as between A. D. 120 and 185.15 Samantabhadra was definitely a Digambara. He wrote among other books, a commentary of Umasvami's Tattvartha dhigamasutra. The main part of the commentary is no longer extant but the introductory part of the commentary exists. It is known as Devagama-sutra or Atamimasna. The Jaina philosophy of book. The work was therefore, discussed by non-Jaina philosopers such as Kumarila (8th/9th centuries) and Vachaspatimishra (9th century) of the Mimansa and the Nyaya schools of thought respectively. Few Jaina authors except Samantabhadra and Akalanka have been found worthy of such notice by non-Jaina philosophers.
Sinhanandi : Some inscriptions mention that Samantabhatra was sucedded by Sinhanandi. In that case he should belong to the 2nd century according to the pattavali reckoning. Sinhanandi is not known as the author of any work. His fame rests on the legend that he was instrumental in the foundation of the Western Ganga Kingdom in Karnataka. The legend is as follows :
"Two princes of the Ikshaku family, Dadiga and Madhava, migrated from the north to South India. They came to the town of Perur (in the Cuddapah district in the Andra State). There they met a Jaina teacher whose name was Sinhanandi. Sinhanandi trained them in the art of ruling. At the behest of the teacher Madhava cut assunder a stone pillar which "barred the road to the entry of the goddess of sovereignty". Thereupon Sinhanandi invested the princes with royal authority, and made them rulers of a kingdom".
The fullest version of the story is met with in a stone insscription from the Karnataka state, dated the first quarter of the 12th century. The nucleus of the story or a few bare allusions to its main incidents, however, occur in the epigraphical records ranging from the 5th century onwards. Thus, it is believed generally that either Sinhanandi or some other Jaina sadhu had something to do with the foundation of the Ganga Kingdom, but there is no independent inscription to prove that Madhva, the founder himself become a Jaina as the later Jaina inscriptions claim.
If Sinhanandi was successor of Samantabhadra then the above incident should have happened by the first half of the 3rd century, but most authorities believe that the Western ganga dynasty was founded in the second half of the 4th century. Thus sinhanandi was not perhaps the immediate successor of Samantabhadra. In fact most Digambara pattavalis do not mention Sinhanandi at all.
According to one tradition the sucessor of sinhanandi was one Kavi Parmeshvara and his successor was Devanandi whose epithet was Pujyapada. However, the several pattavalis of Digambaras, all of which generally start with Bhadrabahu II, give conflicting names of the succeeding patriarchs. The pattavali given in the inscription No 40 20 in Sravana Belgola is as follows :
Umasvati (sic) - Banlakapichchha - Samantabhadra - Devanandi - Akalankt
Some other pattavalis give the following list -
Bhadrababu II - Guptigupta - Maghanandi I - Jina Chandra I - Kundakunda - Umasvami - Lohcharya II, - Yasakirti - Yasonandi - Devanandi - Pujyapada - Gunanandi I.
According to the first list above Devanandi was the successor of Samantabhadra. In the second list. There is no Samantabhadra, and at hte same tome Devanandi and Pujyayada had also waitten a commentary on Umasvami's work. This was called the Sarvarthasiddhi.
We come next to Akalanka with whom the period of the great Jaina acharyas ends in the Karnataka region. According to one of the pattavalis given above he was near contemporary of Samantabhadra and both of them lived in the first half of the 8 th century. Apart form writing a co entry called the Tattvartharajavarittika on the great work of Umasvami, Akalanka wrote a number of works on logic, viz., Nyasavinischaya Laghiyastarya, and Svarupasambodhana. He was opposed, as stated earlier, by Kumarila, the great philosopher of Brahmanical orthodoxy. Akalanka wrote many other treatises also.
Thus beginning with the 1st century and upto the end of the 8th contury, the jainas of the Karnataka region produced a number of distingushed scholars. The Jaina community of Karnataka at that time must have been large and prosperous enough to provide for the maintenance of these scholars and their pupils.
Tamil Nadu : It has been surmised from the various references in the Tamil literature that Jainism was quite common in Tamil Nadu in the period 5th to 11th century. Jainism is not mentioned in the Sangam literature (4th century A. D.), but mention of the people professing Jainism is found in the two Tamil epics Silappadikaram and Manimekhali. Both these epics belong to the 6th or 7th century A. D. Manimekhali is a Buddhist work and refers to the Jainas as Ni(r) granthas. It gives a reasonably good exposition of the Jaina religious philosophy. But naturally, being a Buddhist work refuts it . Silappadikaram is the story of a wife's devotion to her husband. It mentions Uraiyur - a Chola capital, as a centre of Jainism. Both the classics relate that the Ni(r) granthas lived outside the town in their cool cloisters, the walls of which were surrounded by small flower gardens. They also has monasteries for nuns. This description of the Jaina monastries leads one to doubt its avthenticity, for, the Jainas, unlike the Buddhists, do not favour living in monasteries. Also since the Jainas os South India were Digambaras, there should not have been any nuns among them, to say nothing of there being monasteries for them.
Another Tamil work, the pattinapalai, speaks of Jaina and Buddhist temples being in one quarter of the city of Pugar, while in another quarter the Brahamanas with plaited hair performed sacrifices are raised volumes of smoke.
These references show that the number of Jains in Tamil Nadu was sufficiently large to be noticed in the popular literature of the period. One cannot avoid the suspicion, however, that there was a tendency on the part of the writers to mix up the Jains and Buddhists. But Hiuen Tsang who was in Kanchi in the middle of the 7th century also reported that he saw numerous Nirgranthas at the place and since he is not likely to have confused between the Buddhist and the Nirgranthas, it is certain that that the Jain population of Tamil Nadu was quite large.
The Jaina population of Tamil Nadu was apparently larger in the 8th and 9th century than in the 7th century, for in the latter period there are very few Jaina inscriptions. Most of the inscriptions in Tamil (about 80 or so) belong to the 8th and the 9th centuries, and these have been found mainly in the Madurai - Tirunelveli area. (In the Salem district also there was a jain temple or religious place in Tagdur (Dharmapuri) in Tamil Nadu in the 9th century. Thereafter there was perhaps a slow reduction in the Jaina population.
Many large and small Jaina temples still survive in Tamil Nadu. Two of these are important Jain centers even today. One is at Tirumalaipuram, and the other is at Tiruparuttikunram. The latter is a suburb of Conjeeverm, about three kilometers from the centre town, and is in fact still called Jaina-Kanci. The presiding deity here is Vardhamana who is also styled Trailokyanathasvami. The temple is one of the biggest in the taluk.
It is adorned with artistic splendour, and it has a large number of icons of the Jaina pattern. From the inscription (about 17 in number) found at this place it appers that it was built by the Chola emperors Rajendra I (c. 1014-44) and Kulottunga I (c.1070 1120), and added to by Rajaraja III (c. 1216-46). Later additions were made by the Vijayanagar emperors Bukka II (in 1387-88) and Krishna Deva Raya (in 1518). There are some remarkable murals on the temple. These date from the 16th to the 18th century.
The fact that this large and beautiful Jaina temple in the heart of the Tamil country was being adorned even in the 18th century proves that a sufficently numerous and prosperous Jaina community eisted in that part of the country till then. Otherwise the temple could not have been maintained.
What happened to the Jainas of the Tamil Nadu after that? The possibillty is that most of the richer sections of the Jaina population got slowly absorbed in the dominant Shaiva and Vaishnava community surrounding them, and the poorer section took to farming. In fact most of the 50,000 indegenous Jaina who exists in Tamil Nadu today are farmers, and a majority of them live in the North Arcot district. It is Perhaps the lack of many rich people among them that has made the Jainas inconspicuous in Tamil Nadu. It also possible that their proportion on the total population is less than it was a thousand years ago when they started building the numerous temples still seen all over the place.
One story goes that there was a sudden reduction on the number of Jainas specially in the Madurai area in the 7th century. The story is found in the Shaivite books. It starts with the story of the Shaiva saint Gnanasambandha (end of the 7th century) as given in the Periyapuranam (A. D. 1150.) There was a Pandya king of Madu-rai. He was hunch backed. The boy saint Gnanasambandha cured him of his infirmity and the grateful king embraced Shaiva religion. This emboldended the Shaiva population of the city who challenged the local Jainas to prove the superiority of their religion. The wager was that each sect would throw a palm-leaf manuscript script would of its sacred text in the river, and the party whose text lose would be annihilated by the other party. The Jaina text was washed away, but the shaiva text floated against the current. the 8,000 Jains of Mudurai was then killed by implaement by the shaivas. This alleged incident is proved by the evidence of a work composed almost 500 years later and also by the evidence of some frescces on the walls of the Golden Lily Tank of the Minakshi temple (17th century) recorded 1,000 years later.
The story is not found in any Jaina source and the Jainas evidently know nothing about it; and so do not accuse the Shaivas of this massacre. The Hindu Historians on the other hand are at pains to prove the absudity of the story by such arguments as that (I) the Jainas would never enter into a wager where if they won they would have to kill human beings, (2) the king would not permit 8,000 of his inocent subjects to be killed;(3) the Jaina learned men continued to compose importent works on grammer and lexicography in Madurai itself even after the alleged incident. Among these works are cited the Sendan Divakaram a Tamil dictionary by Divakara; the Neminatham and Vachchamalai; two Tamil grammers by Gunavira Pandita, etc. Lastly, if all the Jainas of Madurai were massacred in the 7th century, there would not be, as we have seen earlier, a concentration of Jainas in the same area in the 8th and 9th centuries.
The truth of the matter is that such stories of the annihilation of one sect by a rival sect, were common feature of Tamil literature in those days. These were required to prove the superiority of one's own sect above that of the other. In fact in such story a Jaina king of Kanchi gave the Buddhists a simila treatment. and in another the Vaishnava apostle Ramanuja treated the Jainas similarly by instigation the Hoysala king Vishnu Vardhana against them. Hagiography need not be taken as history.
The Ninth to the Seventeenth Century in Karnataka : This period was the most significant in the history of the Digambara Church. Throughout this long period Jainism was a prominent religion of South India, and especially of Karnataka. The Jainas held improtent positions in the government. Much of the commerce of the country was controlled by the Jainas. And all these prosperous people spent lavishly for the construction of temples and monuments of their religion. While the rulers spent their wealth in the building the Hindu temples at Ellora, Halevid, etc., the Jaina commercial classes filled the region with gigantic statues of Bahubali and magnificent stambhas (towers) and temples. Going by the number of the archaeological remains alone, it might be inferred that some parts of Karnataka, specially the area round about Sravana Belgola, and Karakal were entirely Jaina areas.
This period may also be called the period of the bhattarakas. The bhattarakas could be compaired with the abbots or mahants of monasteries, but in place of monasteries which do not exist in Jainism, the bhattaarkas were the persons who managed the temples and also the estates endowed to the temples by the rulers, and rich devotees. Though these jobs were of a secular nature, the bhattarakas were actually religious persons. In fact, they were the religious leaders of the community. Among the Shetambaras, such leadership was provided by the monks; but on account of the rule of strict nudity, few people became monks among the Digambaras, and the bhattarkas thus necessarily had to assume this leadership. Another important function which the bhattarakas were not strictly munis or ascetis, and therefore they did not go about naked, as Digambara munis were expected to live. According to legend Sultan Feroz Shah Tughluq (1351-1388) invited some Digambara jaina saints and entertained them at his court and palace. Hearing of the great fame and learning of thier chief,his queen desired to see him.For her sake the saint put on a piece of cloth to his nakedness when he appeared before her. He made religious Atonements for this undue liberty, but the example set by him was adopted by his followers. Since then a new sect of yatis-the bhattarkas-started among the Digambaras. The legend has no historical baisis for the mention of the bhattarkas is found in the 9th century in the satkhandagamatika of virasina but the system must have started much earlier, for even in the inscriptions of the 5th century we find mention of the gifts of land to jaina temples,and theremust have been somebody to manage the properties so received.
The Digambara Jaina Community was divided during this period into various sanghas and and ganas. The sena gana and the Balatkara gana claimed that they belonged to the Mula sangha. Similarly Mathura, Ladabagada, Bagada and Nanditata (the present Nanded in Maharastra). On the other hand the documents of these four ganas prior to the 12th century do not mention that they had any connectionwith the Kastha sangha. It has been conjectured therfore that perhaps the sanghs itself was formed by the coming together of these four ganas.
All these speculations, however, are of little importance, for, the difference between one gana and another was negligble When we come to the exact difference in the belief of the various ganas and sanghas, it appears that they mainly lie in the matter of using the various kinds of pichchhis (sweeps) by the monks and in nothing else. While the Sena gana and the Balatkara gana prescribed the peacock's tail for their pichchhi, the Ladabagada and the Nanditata prescribed the camara (Yak's tail). The Mathura gana on the other hand did not use any pichchhi at all. Schubring, however, mentions an importent point, that the Kastha sangha allowed women also to take diksa. Perhaps this has affected the parxis of the northen Digambaras, for the Digambara Jainas of northern India do allow women at the present time to become nuns. (The nuns were allowed a long piece of white cloth to be worn as sadis. A Digambara nun does not expect to get salvation in this birth. She only expects to go to heaven as a reward for her religious life. When he allotted period of stay in heaven is over, she would be born as a man. He can then try for the final salvation).
Rashtakutas : The Rashtrakutas ruled over a large area in the center of Indian for two centuries being with the middle of the 8th century. One of the importent patrons of learning among them was Amoghavarsha Nripatunga (815-877). He was himself a scholar, and wrote an importent Kannada work on poetics. One of his epithets was Atishayadhavala. Jaina Adipurana during his period. The commentary on the certain parts of the Shatkhandagama was also perhaps prepared during his period. This commentary is known as Jayadhavala.
It was during Amoghavarsha's time that Ugraditya wrote a treatise on medicine called Kalyanakaraka. It is a voluminous work in Sanskrit containing 8,000 Slokas. Ugraditya says only revised and enlarged it. Who this Pujyuapada was is not clear? The famous Pujyapada was not known to be a writer on medicine.
Ugraditya divides the bok in eight chapters, as was usual with other contemporary Ayurvedic works. However his main attempt was to eleminate the use in medicine of meat and other words, it prescribed only those medicines which a Jaina could safely take. The author refers to Agnivesha, kashyapa and Charaka among the ancient authors but does not mention Susruta or Nagar juna. Mercury and other metals are importent ingredients medicine in the Kalyanakaraka. This was perhaps due to the introduction of Aabic influence, for mercury and other metals though mentioned are not very important as medicines in earlier Indian works.
Another scholar who flurished during this period was the Jain mathematician Mahaviracharya, who wrote his Ganitasarasangraha in c 850. Mahavira found out the rule for calculating the number of combinations of things taken at a time. This can be put in the morden notation as n!
Its is, however, not certain that it was his disr! (n-r)! covery, for Mahavira never refers to any earlier mathematician, not even to Brahamgupta whose famous rule for the area of a (cyclic) quadrilateral he mentions.
A mathematical discovery of this period was the use of logarithms were the bases 2, 3 and 4. Reference to the use of logarithms occurs for the first time in the Dhavala commentary mentioned above. Use of logarithms for the ease of calculations with large numbers which occur in Jaina cosmology, continued at least for a hundred years, for Nemichandra at the end of the tenth century mentions the rule of logarithm (which he called ardhachheda, i.e. logarithm to the base 2), as :
"The ardhachheda of the multiplier plus the ardhachheda of the multiplichand is the ardhachheda of the product" Trilokasara, Gatha 105)
or, in morden notations,
log2A+log2B=log2A.B
Later Gangas : In the later centuries of Ganga rule in southern Karnataka we see evidence of great material prosperity of the Jainas, Epigarphic records indicate that these rulers were all patrons of the Jainas and made grants to various Jaina temples. Indeed, some of them might have themselves become Jainas. These were Nitimarga I (853-870), Nitimarga II (907-935), Marasinha III (960-974), etc. In fact, Marasinha III died by the Jain vow of starvation know as Sallekhana in the presence of Ajitasena bhattaraka in A.D. 974.
Some ministers and generals of these Ganga rulers also were devout Jains and spent large sums of money in building temples and other architectural monuments. The 17 meter high statue of bahubali was built as Sravana Belgola by Chamundarya in 983. Chamundaraya was the minister. Three of Nemichandra displayed his mathematical talent in writing this book. The other two works are on Jaina philosophy. (All these three works on Nemichandra were translated into Hindi prose by Tdarmal of Jaipur, in the 18th century).
The Gangas ruled over South Karnataka from the fourth to the 10th century and all through their period they were helpful towards Jainas.
Hoysalas : Karnataka entered its period of artistic glory with the establishment of the Hosala dynasty in the 12th century. The captial of the Hoysalas was at Dorasamundra. Thery attained great power under Vishnuvardhana (1111-52) and his grandson Vira Ballala II. The last notable ruler of this dyanasty was Vira Ballala III. He sustained defeats at the hands of kafur, the general of Ala-ud-din-Khailji, and finnaly perished in or about 1342.
the Hoysala kings built many beautful temples in the south Karnataka. These temples are the glories of Indian art. While the kings built temples of the Shaiva and Vaishnava faiths their ministers and the merchant princes among their subjects built Jaina temples. Ganga Raja a general and minister of Visnuvardhana the greatest of the Hoysalas, built the Parshvantha basadi (basadi in Karnataka means a Jain temple) at Chamarajanagar near Mysore. In 1116 Hulla who was a treasuer or bhandari for three successive Hoysala rulers built the Chaturvinsati-Jinalaya(also known as the Bhandaribasadi) in Sravana Belgola.
We thus see that all these dynasties which ruled over Karnataka were friendly to the Jainas. It is assumed that more often that than not it for reasons of prudence that it was thought necessary to suit the Order so influential owig to its welthy laymen." Schubring is generally correct in his assessment. Some later Ganga kings it appears actually got initiated into Jainism. But the evidence for this was not available to Schubring when he wrote in 1934.
Vijayanagara Empire : This empire was known among other things for the revival of brahmanic learning but if we go by the number of existing monuments spread throughout the empire, it was also a period of great building activity of the Jainas.
In fact the large building activity seen among the Jains was due to the fact that the main commercial calss of karnataka, the Vir Banajigas had become ardernt Jainas. As Saletare puts it, "The real clue to the understanding of the of the high position which Jainism held in the land is seen in the ardour and devotion of the commercial" classes and again, "with the immense wealth of which Vir Banjigas were the traditional custodians, the Jaina sages had magnificent Jinalayas and images constructed".
If we take the period from the 10th to the early 17th century, we find that the main center of constructional activity of the Jainas in the first half of this period. Karkala itself was the seat of the Bhairarasa Wodeyars, a powerful Jaina family . At Haleangadi, close by is the finest Jaina stambha in the district. It has a monolithic shaft 33 feet high eight segments, each beautifully and variously ornmented, supporting an elegant captial and topped by a stone shrine containing a statue. The total height is about 50 feet (15 meters)"
But the place nearby which became the center of Jainism in South India in the period 13th to the early 17th century is Mudabadri, about 16 kms from Karkala. The place is said to have been started near about A.D. 714 when a monk from anatha-basadi, here. The place became importent acharya Charukirti Panditacharya arrived here from Sarvana Belgola.
From then onwards till the early 17th century this whole area was a scene of large constructional activity of the Jainas. The architectural style adopted was also peculiar. "They are much plainer than Hindu temples generally are. The pillars look like logs of wood with the andles partially chamfered off, so as to meke them octagons, and the sloping roofs of the verandas are so evidently wooden that the style itself cannot be far removed from a wooden orginal.....
Most of the Jaina religious building in and near about Mudabadri were built by the wealthy merchant of the of the area. The thousand pillared basadi or temple, known as the 'Tribhuvna-tilaka-chuda-mani' was built by a group of Jaina merchants(settis) in 1430, and this is the most magnificent Jaina shrine in South India.
Mudabadri temples also became depositories of Jaina literature. Indeed the famous commentaries Dhavala and Jayadhavala were found only in the Siddhanta-basadi here.
As the Mudabadri,-Karkala area, also known as the Tuluva country, became more and more importent, the influence of Jainism declined in the rest of Sout India. The one reason for this was the revival of the Brahmanical religion under the kings of the Vijayanagar a empire. The Vijayanagara kings were not against Jainas. In fact, they were always just when any civil dispute arose between the Jainas and other in 1363 and the other in 1368, where the disputes between the two antagonistic groups of Jainas and non-jainas were amicably settled by the vijayanagara rulers. These settlements were duly recorded in stone inscriptions. The cause of the decline was thus not the hostillty of the Kings. It has to be looked for else were.
Of all the places in South India, it was Karnataka were Jainism was strongest. Two things happened there which in the course of a few centuries reduced the influence of Jainism in the course of a few centuries reduced the influence of Jainism in the greater part of the region, so that ultimately by the 16th century its stronghold was left only in one corner of the region that is in Tuluva country, round about Karkala, Mudabadri etc. The first of this was the rise of the Vira-shaiva or the Lingayat religion under the leadership of Basava in the 12th century. He himself beging a minister was able to convert many of the local chiefs such as the Santaras, rulers of Coorg, etc., to Vira-shaivism. The second and perhaps the decisive reason was the conversion of the main merchantile class the Vira Banajigas from Jainism were lost to a rival religion. Added to this was the fact that after the period of the acharyas, say, by the end of the 9th century, there were no outstanding Jaina leaders in Karnataka to give fresh intellectual life to this community.
Jainism, therefore, slowly got extinguished in South India, leaving comparatively small pockets of devotees in the centers which were great at one time. These were, for instance, Sravana-Belgola and Mudabadri. Jaina religious groups have survived there to this day. So far as the other scattered Jaina populations were concerned the ritcher people among them were converted to some Brahmanical religion such as Vaishnavism or Shaiviam, and the poorer mostly took to farming and thus became inconspicuous.
The indigenous Jainas who are left in South India today are endogamous clans and do not intermarry with Jainas of North India. They are all digambaras and are dividend into four main castes, viz, Setavala (not found in Karnataka), chaturtha, Pancham, and Bogara or Kasara, and three small castes, Upadhyayas, Kamboja and Harada. Their priests are Brahamanas.
"Each of the four main castes in the South is led by its own spiritual leader (bhattaraka), who occupying intermediary positions between ascetics and laymen can individually resolve disputes between the members of the cast and expel from it whomsoever he considers it necessary." The Chaturathas are mainly agriculturists, the Setavalas are agriculturists as well as tailors, the Kasaras of the Bogaras are coppersmiths, and the members of the Panchamma caste follow any of these professions.
The Digambaras of North India : Thanks to the numerous stone inscriptions and religious literature found in South India more or less a continuous history of the Digambaras Jainas can be traced form the 5 the century to 17 th century A.D But we know much less abuth the Digambara communities in the north during the corresponding period. As stated earlier, most of the statues of the tirthankaras that have been found in the 4th and 5th century in the area now covered by Uttar Pradesh, were nude. The majority of the Jainas in the area today are Digambaras. We may thus conclude that when finally the great schism occured (and this might have been a gradual process) the Jainas of north India found themselves in the Digambara camp. Later monuments also support the view that most of the Jainas eastern and northern Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa were also Digambaras. Mention has already been made of the Digambara images found in Bihar (12 th century), and Orissa (11th to 15th century). These are all Digamber temples and must be built by the rich merchants living in the capital city of the Chandela Rajput Kings of Bundelkhand. One temple in the group, that of Parshvanatha, has even been compared favourably with the renowned Kandarya Mahadeo temple of this place. Another Important group of Digambara Temples is in Deogarha in Jhansi district. The Jaina merchants of Bundelkhand were perhaps as well looked after by the Chandela rulers as well looked after by the Chandela rulers as their counterparts were in Karnataka.
A few Digambara inscriptions have been found in Gwalior also. These are fagmentary and do not give much information. Chittorgarh, like Khajuraho was a stronghold of the Digambaras in the 12th and 13th centuries. This proved by a number of Jaina insctiptions found there. Four of them are by one Shaha jijaka. It was he who had rised the famous kirti-stambha of Chittorgarh in 1300 A.D. Shaha Jijaka claimed to belong to the kundakundanvyaya. This proves that not only was the tower raised by a Digambara merchant but also that the practice of claming desent from the line of Kundakunda, a practice quite commin in South India, had spread to the north by the 13th century.
However, the fact remains that it is difficult to built up a history of Digambaras of north India on the basis of the available epigraphic evidence. The number of inscriptions found so far are too few. In the five volume jaina Shila Lekha Sangraha, a Digambara collection, the number of Digambara inscriptions recorded form north India after the 6th century would not be more than 20.
There is a paucity of literary sources also. The Digambaras of north India, unlike their counterparts in the South, composed very few works at least upto the 17th century. In fact in the early medieval period there was perhaps only one importent Digambara writher in north India. Harisena who wrote his Brihatkathakosa in A. D. 931, lived in Gujarat. The work is quite informative about the social and religious condition of India of this period. As mentioned earlier the Shvetambara sect according to Harisena orignated in Valabhi.
In the absence of sufficient epigraphic and literary evidence one has to depend one the legendary materials for reconstructing the history of the Digambaras of north India.
One thing immediately becomes clear. The Digambaras, unlike the Shvetambaras did not break up into large number of groups and subgroups in north India. Most of them belonged to the Bisapantha sect. The origin of this sect is not clearly known. "It probably originated in the 13th century. Glasenapp remarks that one Vasantakirti held the view that so long as the monks lived among the people, they should wear one garment. the believers of this opinion were called Vishvapanthis. This was corrupted in to Bisapanthis. The monks of this pantha live in a cloister under the headship of a bhattaraka. They installed the image of tirthankaras along with that of Kshetrapala dieties such as the Bhairavas ande others. They worship the images buy offering fruits, flowers and other foodstuffs.
Whatever might be the origin of the Bisapanthis, the description of their religious practices as given above is substanially correct. In fact the majority of the Digambara Jains of northern India followed these practices. As the days passed the bhattarakas, who managed the properites of the temples and monasteries became more and more and more powerful. The popularity of the Kshetralala deities (who for all practical purposes were folk gods) continued to increase. Such a movement started some time in the 17th century in the Agra region. One of the leaders of this protest was Banarasidasa Jaina. In course of time the movement grew stronger, and it was named Terapantha. According to Bakhtarama Shaha, an 18th century.
As it has always happened in the Jaina reformist movements, the Terapanthis did not try to introduce any change in the basic tenets of the Jaina religion. Their reforms were connected with small details of rituals only. For Instance this sect believed that one should not worships in the temples at night, that while worshipping one should be standing and not sitting that kesara (saffron) should not be offered to image, etc.
Starting from the Agra-Jaipur region the Terapantha movement spread among all the Digambra Jainas of northern India. Those who did not accept the views of this sect were called Bisapanthis. As to which is the original sect and which the offshoot remains a matter of perennial dispute.
In the 18th century there was a learned Digambara Jaina in Jaipur. His name was Todarmala. He translated into Hindi prose all the voluminous Prakrit works of Nemichand (10th century) of Karnataka. In those days of the infancy of Hindi porse, Todarmala's writing show a refreshing clarity and rhythm. Todarmala belonged to the Terapantha sect. His son Gumanirama was very orthodox in his religious opinions; and he thought that Terapantha had not gone back far enough to the original pristine Jaina religion. He, Therefore started a new sect which was named after him as Gumana-pantha never become popular. Its adherents were always few in number. Some temples belonging to this sect in the Jaipur city and its neighborhood prove that the sect still survives.
-----------------------------------------------------
Mail to : Ahimsa Foundation
www.jainsamaj.org
R9111
