The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.s2.97

v2.c16.s2.97

*Religion of the early cave-dwellers:—I have* hitherto accepted the caves of Udayagiri and Khaṇḍagiri to be of Buddhist origin, and from the various relics of Buddhism which have been above noticed, few will be disposed to question the conclusion I have come to. It is nevertheless necessary to examine here some of the grounds upon which the caves may by supposed to represent other than the religion of Śākya Muni. The first objection that may be started against my conclusion would be founded on the salutation at the beginning of the Elephant Cave. That it is word for word the same with the first clause of the Jain Gāyatrī has already been admitted (*ante* p. [17],) and it may reasonably be argued that it would justify the assumption that Aira was a follower of the Jain religion. It is, however, well-known that the Jains are an early heretical sect of the Hīnayāna school of the Buddhists, and therefore the similitude in the salutation cannot be accepted as a conclusive proof in either way. Then the word Arhat is common to both the Jains and the Buddhists and the latter used it at a very early period of their history; consequently it is of no use as a test. Had the word Jina occurred in the salutation it would have been of some weight, though not conclusive, for Śākya Buddha bore the name of Jina, and the use of the term would not therefore necessarily imply another sect. Aira, besides, according to my calculation as shown above, lived long before the time of the Jain heresy, and too near the time of Śākya to have been a follower of the doctrine of Mahāvīra. According to the most recent theory the Jain faith is not older than the first, or, at the earliest, the second century before Christ, whereas Aira lived at least a hundred and fifty years before that time, and within a hundred years after the Orissan kings received a share of the relics of Śākya, and it is not at all probable, therefore, that he should have belonged to other than the orthodox Buddhist faith.