The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s3.200

c8.s3.200

During this period the religion of Buddha was in a flourishing condition. Princes and chiefs calling themselves Mahâbhojas and Mahâratthis, merchants (Naigamas), goldsmiths (Suvarnakâras), carpenters (Vardhakas), corn-dealers (Dhânyakaśrenis), druggists (Gândhikas), and ordinary householders (Grihasthas) caused at their expense temples and monasteries to be excavated out of the solid rock for the use of the followers of that religion. It has been mentioned that in the first part of this period the country was exposed to the inroads of foreign tribes, such as Yavanas or Bactrian Greeks, S'akas, and Pahlavas. These afterwards settled in the country and adopted the Buddhist religion. For, among the donors and benefactors whose names are recorded in the cave inscriptions, there are a good many S'akas and Yavanas. But some and especially the S'akas seem to have adopted Brâhmanism. The Buddhist temples were provided with chaityas or tombs in imitation of those in which some relic of Buddha was buried, and these were objects of worship. The monasteries contained cells intended as residences for Bhikshus or mendicant priests. These travelled over the country during the year and spent the four rainy months at one of these monastic establishments. In the month of S'râvana the monks held the ceremony of robing, at which the old clothes were thrown away and new ones worn. To provide these for them, charitable persons deposited, as we have seen, sums of money with certain guilds with directions that out of the interest new robes should be purchased and given to the priests. Villages were assigned by kings and their officers for the support of these religious establishments. The mendicant priests often travelled by sea; and hence at the head of several of the creeks in the Konkan we have cave monasteries intended as Dharmasâlâs or rest-houses for them. We have such caves at Chiplun, Mahâd, and Kudem situated respectively on the Dâbhol, the Bânkot, and the Râjapuri creeks. For those who landed at the head of the Bombay harbour or at Ghodbandar, there were the Kânheri caves.