The Age of the Imperial Guptas c7.8

c7.8

In this long list of inscriptions only four are Jaina and less than half-a-dozen Buddhist. This enormous preponderance of Hindu or Brāhmanical records prove definitely that Hinduism had benefitted greatly at the cost of the rival sects. There is one class of records which do not contain dates or names of Emperors but which can be referred to the Gupta period very definitely on the basis of palæography. These are the votive inscriptions of the Gupta period discovered during the last two decades at Sarnath, the Buddhist Benares. The Sarnath inscriptions of this period do not mention the names of Gupta Emperors except in three solitary instances, the Buddha image of the reign of Kumāragupta II of G.E. 154 and two similar images of the reign of Budhagupta of G.E. 157. Is it the beginning of the Buddhist custom of refusing to recognise a non-Buddhist King in permanent records? The inscribed images from Sarnath, though they do not furnish any data for the political history of the Gupta period, afford us ample material for the study of the evolution of artistic activity of the Benares School of Sculpture. Incidentally they prove the truth of Fa-Hsien's statement that Buddhism continued to flourish side by side with Hinduism. The same can not be said of Jainism; that religion was distinctly on the decline. Even in great centres of the Jaina faith like Mathurā the dedication of Jaina images in the Gupta period was a rare event. The recent discovery of a copper plate at Paharpur in the Rajshahi district of Bengal proves that the eradication of Jainism from North-Eastern India was very rapid. According to Mr. K. N. Dikshit M.A., the discoverer, the inscription on this copper plate is dated G.E. 159 = 478-9 A.D. and therefore it must be referred to the reign of Budhagupta. It records the donation of some land by a Brāhmaṇa couple for the maintenance of worship in a Jaina Vihāra or establishment of Nirgrantha ascetics presided over by Guhanandin at the Village of Vaṭa-Gohali. This inscription does not mention the name of the reigning Emperor Budhagupta though he is expressly mentioned as such in the third Damodarpur plate of G. E. 163. A century after the fall of the Imperial Guptas, Yuan Chwang mentions naked Jaina mendicants in the temples of North Bengal. But in the Pāla period there is hardly any evidence of Jaina influence in Bengal as only half-a-dozen Jaina images have been discovered throughout the length and breadth of that province.