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History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c41.s6: Jainism.

History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c41.s6

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Jainism.

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Jainism is often confounded with Buddhism both by many western scholars as also by some Purāṇa writers for the simple reason that Ahimsā is a common tenet of both and that Jina is a name applied both to Mahāvīra and to Gautama. And even the name Buddha can be and is applied to both (e.g. बुद्धो जिन: पातु व:) meaning awakened. Jina means conqueror (of the mind) and the epithet was originally applied to both these teachers. Then again the name Jaina of the followers of Mahāvīra is only a later name, the former name applied to them being Niggrantha. Both Mahāvīra and Gautama were again contemporaries. But there is no doubt that Gautama is the later of the two. As a protestor against the Vedic religion, Gautama Buddha is the last and Mahāvīra preceded him in time as also in thought as we proceed to show. Let us see in what points they protested against the Vedic religion. The thinkers of the Upanishads had already begun to speculate on the highest metaphysical questions and had developed certain philosophic ideas, though they continued to stick to their old Vedic religion.

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That religion including the philosophic thoughts of the Upanishads taught the following namely:—

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1st—The revelation of the Vedas.

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2nd—The worship of the Vedic gods Indra, Varuṇa etc. and the post-Vedic developments of Viṣṇu and Śiva.

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3rd—Highest efficacy of animal-sacrifices to the Vedic gods.

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4th—The Chāturvarṇya theory including the sacerdotal sanctity of Brahmins i. e. the priests at the sacrifices.

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5th—The theory of Āśramas chiefly of the third for practising Tapa and the 4th for attaining Mokṣa by Sanyāsa or renunciation. The Brahmins began to teach that these two Āśramas were open to Brahmins only.*

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6th—The theory of Ātman (soul) and the highest Brahman or impersonal God or Supreme Soul, and

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7th—The Theory of Karman and transmigration of Ātman.

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Already the teachers of the Upanishads had begun to preach that animal sacrifices did not lead to the highest goal but were lower in merit, though they did not condemn them, and preached that Mokṣa could be obtained by Sanyāsa only. The Bhagvadgītā countenanced both; indeed as an orthodox doctrine it did not condemn the views about sacrifices and Sanyāsa or the Chāturvarṇya or the Āśrama theory with the allied philosophies of Tapa and Sanyāsa (Yoga and Sāṅkhya). But it preached the new doctrine of Bhakti of Viṣṇu which would take even women and śūdras (denied absolution by Brahmins) to the highest goal.

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Such was in a nutshell the development of religious thought in India till about 1000 B. C. While the orthodox believed in all these tenets, different teachers denied some of them and accepted others. The many protestant thinkers who arose hereafter are, however, forgotten but the last two Mahāvīra and Gautama were more powerful than the rest and founded protestant religions which survive to this day. Both Gautama and Mahāvīra denied the first five items, and accepted the last viz. the law of Karman; but while Mahāvīra accepted also the two Aśramas of Tapas and Sanyāsa, Gautama went beyond him and denied Tapas and only stuck to Sanyāsa. Naturally he was heard with greater zest, especially as he admitted all people whether Aryans or non-Aryans (the Traivarṇikas and Śūdras), whether male or female, to his order of Sanyāsa and did not recognise Tapas or self-mortification at all. There was no God nor Atman; at least, Buddha asked his followers not to think about them. He, however, laid the greatest stress on a moral life for a layman and on renunciation in addition for a monk. Mahāvīra was behind him, so to speak, in protest and believed in self-mortification such as fast etc., and insisted on absolute renunciation including the abandoning of clothes for monks. He too laid the highest stress on a moral life for laymen. Both, of course, supported the Yoga and Sānkhya philosophies but absolutely denied the Vedas and the Brahmins.

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∗ Not only Sanyāsa but even Tapas was not allowed to the Śūdras, though it was for a long time allowed to Kṣatriyas and Vaiśyas. The episode in the Rāmāyaṇa in which Rāma is told that a Brahmin chlid died owing to the sin of a Śūdra practising penance and Rāma goes to Daṇḍakāraṇya to kill that Śūdra and when he is killed the Brahmin child regains its life is illustrative of this belief that Śūdras are not allowed to perform Tapas much more Sanyāsa.

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Naturally Buddhism, as the latest and the greatest protest against Brahminism succeeded more than Jainism. Moreover, it seems to us that while Buddha preached to the common people in their language, Mahāvīra did not, and the Buddhist canon was soon evolved in Pali while the Jain canon remained unwritten for a long time. The Buddhist monk life again was easy, while Mahāvīra insisting on nudity and self-mortification, Jain asceticism was more difficult to practise. And finally, Buddhism received immense impetus from the two imperial followers, Aśoka and Kanishka. Buddhism, therefore, became the predominant religion, especially in Northern India, for many centuries while Jainism remained in a minority. In the religious map of India we have prepared from the detailed account of the travels of Hiuen Tsang and which we have appended to the first volume, it will be seen that in some parts such as Kapiśa, Sind, Magadha and Malwa, Buddhism was predominant while it shared the inhabitants equally throughout almost the whole of India. Jainism appears only in isolated places and in a minority i. e. in Bihar, in Orissa or Kalinga, in Chola and in Karnātak in the 7th century A. D. Later when Kumārila and Śankara made the final attack on Buddhism, Jainism, as an unimportant opponent, was not chiefly noticed and went on, while Buddhism was rigorously attacked and finally supplanted. It must be remembered, however, that in intellectuality Jainism was never inferior to Buddhism, for we find Jainism, as a separate philosophy, is tried to be refuted in the Brahma-sūtras of Bādarāyaṇa. Indeed we think that the Jains from the very beginning were posted in all the necessary Śāstras, logic and grammar especially, and their proficiency in astrology and medicine always attracted the respect of the common people. It seems that intellectual Brahmins also joined the ranks of Jains as of Buddhists from time to time owing to conviction as well as for honour and contributed to the maintenance of the reputation of the Jains for learning.

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Like Buddhism, in fact like every other religion, Jainism was early divided into two sects. While the Digambaras insisted on nudity for monks, the Śvetāmbaras allowed them white clothes (two in number). The Jains who went to and preached in the south were of the Digambara sect, the Śvetāmbaras in southern India being mostly traders come in recent times from Gujarat or Rajputana. The first great teacher who went into the southern country was Bhadrabāhu who is said to have gone from Ujjain during a famine and went with many followers as far as Śravaṇa Belgola in Mysore territory. There must be others who went from Bihar via Kalinga along the eastern coast. It is thus we find the Jain religion established in Āndhra, in Tamil land and in Karṇāṭaka, though not in Mahārāṣṭra, from early centuries of the Christian era down to the days of Hiuen Tsang and later. The Jain ascetics being learned men took up the three vernacular languages of the three countries and produced the first literature in them viz., in Tamil, Kanarese and Telugu, and for this reason they succeeded in impressing the common people in these lands. There were thus and there still are Jains among the common people in these provinces while there are very few in Northern India among the illiterate masses.

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The Jain pandits first used Sanskrit words in their unchanged or Tatsama forms in vernacular writing, and thus embellished Tamil, Kanarese and Āndhra literatures. They did not use the modulated Prakrit forms like the Buddhists;

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and thus added beauty to their vernacular writings. They also wrote the grammars of these local vernaculars in Sanskrit. They again appear to have started schools for children; as strangely enough we find in Āndhra, Tamil and Karṇāṭaka and even in Mahārāṣṭra that the first sentence taught to children in writing varṇamālā is still the Jain salutation "Om Namah Siddham". The Telugu people use the formula "Om Namah Śivāya, Siddham Namah" (Andhra-Karnatak Jainism p. 64. Studies in South Indian Jainism by Ramaswamy Ayyangar, M. A. The latter portion is said by him to be Buddhist; but it seems also to be Jain). "The first part has been added subsequently by Śaivas in the south to obliterate the influence of Jains, and when the Śaivas themselves started Matams and Pāṭhaśālas or primary schools in villages and towns." "In Kalinga or Ooriya the formula is "Siddhirastu" which is clearly Jain" (ditto). In Mahārāṣṭra "Srī Gaṇeśāya Namah" is added to "Om Namah Siddham". These relics show that formerly Jain ascetics took a great share in teaching children in the southern countries.

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The Jains also exerted their best to secure influence at the several Hindu courts in the south. In the Tamil land, the Pāṇḍyas and Cholas made donations to Jain gurus, and Jain temples and monasteries were built near Mādura, the capital of the Pāṇḍyas, even in the early centuries of the Christian era. In Gaṅgavāḍi in Mysore territory, the Gaṅgas appear to have specially patronised the Jains and probably they were themselves Jains. Samantabhadra was a great Digambara Jain teacher who according to Śravaṇa Belgola Inscription No. 44 "beat the drum" (literally and invited opponents to refute him) at Pāṭaliputra, in Malwa, in Sind, in Thakka country (the Panjab) and then came to Kāñchī in the south and thence came to Karṇāṭaka. "He was followed by Sinhānandi who founded, it is believed, the Gaṅgavadi state." Samantabhadra is the author of the important Jain work "Āpta Mimānsā" the most authoritative exposition of the Syādvāda doctrine. Pūjyapāda was another learned Jain who is the author of the Jain Sanskrit grammar "Jinendra Vyākaraṇa", Akalanka is said to have confuted the Buddhists at the court of Himaśitala in Kāñchī and thereby procured the expulsion of Buddhists from South India" (p. 33 ditto). Thus the Jains both by their learning and asceticism secured favour in the courts of the several kingdoms in the south and many kings gave them inām villages as also built temples and carved colossal images of Jina. It may be noted that both Buddhism and Jainism while they denied God and idol-worship eventually drifted into the worship of Buddha and Jina as God and built temples with their images (though it must be conceded that certain Jain sects do not believe in images or worship any forms). The Jains erected statues to their Tīrthankaras and worshipped them in large temples. "This method of worship was highly impressive and attractive and it was imitated by the Hindus" (p. 77 ditto). The result was that stupendous Hindu temples arose in the south under different kingly dynasties as has also been related in Vols. I and II. In fact we have always held that idol-worship among the Hindus, though not originated by the Buddhists and the Jains, has been greatly fostered by their example.

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Having so far cursorily described the progress of Jainism we will now go on to describe its decline and even fall in the south during the sub-period treated of in this volume, chiefly by the aid of the above mentioned treatise by Mr. Ramaswamy Ayyangar. The opposition came from the revival of Śaivism and its powerful preachers. "If Sambandar (a Śaiva saint) brought about the downfall of Jainism in the Pāndya kingdom, Appar drove the Jains out from the Pallava country" (p. 66). This was in the beginning of the 8th century; but the Cholas who came to power at the end of the 10th century were devout devotees of Śiva and persecuted the Jains more cruelly than the previous rulers. We have already seen that one Chola king is said to have died because of the curse of the persecuted Jains. It need not, therefore, be doubted that the Cholas did use their political power for the suppression of Jainism. In the great temple built at Madura by Rājarāja Chola, he placed the statues of the 63 Nāyanārs or Śaiva saints of the Tamil land for worship; but "in the frescoes on the walls of the Mantapam of the Golden Lily tank of the temple of Mīnākshi at Madura are paintings of the bloody episodes in the bitter struggles between Jainism and Hinduism." (p. 79).

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Turning from Tamil land, to Karṇāṭaka i. e. the Southern Maratha country and Mysore, we find that the early Chālukyas, in the former, though staunch Hindus themselves, patronised Jains and made grants to Jain temples and sadhus. Under the Rāṣṭrakūṭas in the second sub-period of our history (800-1000) Jainism prospered and as stated in Vol. II (p. 203) even some Rāṣṭrakūṭa kings became devotees of Jain saints and Jainism spread even among the cultivating population of the Southern Maratha country, the Vaiśyas being generally admirers of Ahimsā here as elsewhere and therefore usually Jains. The Ganga kings in Mysore were themselves Jains; and the last representative of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa line Indra IV being a son of Kṛṣṇa III by a Western Ganga princess was a devout Jain. When the later Chālukyas overthrew the last Rāṣṭrakūṭa king Kakkala, Indra IV tried to set up the Rāṣṭrakūṭa power but failed and as a devout Jain killed himself by Sallekhana, a Jain vow (Vol. II p. 151). In Malkhed, we found in the fort the remains of a Jain sanctuary (Vol. II p. 354) and in the town itself, there is a Jain Basti. It seems, therefore, clear that Jainism progressed in the Southern Maratha country at the end of the 10th century. But the later Western Chālukyas who came to power in this sub-period (1000-1200), Tailpa and others, were devout Śaivites and persecuted Jainism. "If the traditions of the country are to be believed, Jain statues and idols in the Bastis were thrown away and the Paurāṇic gods were substituted." (p. 112). Mr. Ramaswamy wrongly considers the rule of the later Chālukyas as short-lived. It was not overthrown by the Kalachūris in 1126 but in 1159 A. D., and Kalachūri rule was itself short-lived. It is, however, probable that the Kalachūri usurpation was a religious movement, Vijjana Kalachūri being a Jain. But Vijjana and the Kalachūri rule fell soon before the returning tide of Śaivism, as we will shortly describe, in a new form viz. the Lingayat schism.

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In Karṇāṭaka proper beyond the Tungabhadrā, the Gangas ruled for a long time and they were followers of Jain saints. The Gangas were overthrown by the Cholas of Tanjore in about 1004 A. D.; but gradually the Hoysalas established their power in Gangavāḍi. They were in the beginning followers of Jainism but the famous Viṣṇuvardhana was converted to Vaishnavism by Rāmānuja and Vaishnavism has since then been firmly established in Mysore territory. "Loosing support of the kingly family in Mysore, persecuted by the Cholas in Tamil land and displaced by the Lingāyats in Southern Maratha country, Jainism naturally succumbed in southern India finally. Though a respectable number still followed the faith, they no longer obtained political influence from popularity either among the people or with the princes."

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It remains to describe how Jainism declined in Āndhra where it had been established since the days of Khāravela when Digambara Jains came to it from Bihar directly. From the monogram by B. Seshagiri Rao attached to the above-mentioned treatise, it appears that local tradition and Kaifiyats show that Jainism was overthrown by the rising power of Śaivism there also. Āndhra Rajputs, Pūsapātis and others, stood for the Vaidic religion. The Eastern Chālukyas later patronised Śaiva poets one of whom Nannaya translated the Mahābhārata into Telugu and added support and strength to Śaivism. This Śaiva revival was further strengthened under the Eastern Ganges who were Śaivas in the beginning. The Kākatiyas of Warangal were also Śaivas and persecuted the Jains more rigorously. Lastly "the worsting of the Jains by Ganapatideva of Warangal when they were defeated in disputation with Tikkana, author of the Telugu Mahābhārata (?) is more famous and is described in a poem in the Oriental Manuscripts Library in the Madras Museum" (p. 28 ditto).

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Such is the history in substance of the decline and fall of Jainism in southern India during this period and the fall may be attributed chiefly to the revival of the popularity of Śiva worship. We need not recount the many stories of miracles wrought by Śaiva saints or of victories of Jain disputants and of the Yogic powers of both, Yoga being taken up and lauded to the skies by both religions; nor need we detail the stories of how the Jains were persecuted and even impaled by Chola intolerant kings who gave up the traditional toleration of Hindu monarchs. But we proceed to describe how Jainism while it decayed in the south prospered and progressed in the west in this very sub-period.

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We have said in Vol. II that Jainism was not in ascendancy in Gujarat and Rajputana during the previous sub-period (800-1000) and we may place its progress there in this sub-period. Why this Ahimsā religion progressed at this time under the rule of Śaivite Rājput kings with all their pride of arms and their trade of killing is really a wonder. And yet in all Rājput states, in Sambhar and Mewad, in Malwa and Gujarat, Jainism made progress at this time, the rulers being all worshippers of Śiva, in fact as staunch Śaivites as the Kshatriya rulers of southern India. There was no doubt the returning tide of the Buddhistic or Jain feeling of respect for non-slaughter. From the Upanishadic times, the Hindus have alternately been swayed by this regard for Ahimsā and have alternately given up their adherence to Vedic animal sacrifice. The revival of Hinduism or rather Vedic-Aryanism under Kumārila and Śankara had subsided and the tide of Buddhist Ahimsā feeling was no doubt returning. But while it did not assist Jainism in the south for reasons which we will presently explain, it led on Jainism to popularity in Gujarat, Malwa and Rajputana. We believe in the powerful influence of personalities and we attribute the progress of Jainism in the western parts of the country in this sub-period to the influence of the great Jain pandit Hemachandra.

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The story of the life of this great Jain teacher is not obscure as that of Kumārila or Śankara; for he is associated with the reigns of two great kings of Gujarat, Jayasinha Siddharāja and Kumārapāla. It does not, however, appear (as we once thought) that he was a southern Jain or he received his inspiration from the south. Indeed the Jain teachers of the south were all Digambaras, who, it may be admitted, carry the doctrine of renunciation to all its logical demands. The Jains of Gujarat and Rajputana were and are mostly Śvetāmbaras who allow two white clothes to their Munis; and Hemachandra was a Śvetāmbara both as student and teacher. He was born in a Jain Vaiśya family in Gujrarat and was given in early life by his mother to her Jain teacher who saw his great intelligence and his future promise. He became an Āchārya and came to Anhilwād as the head of its Jain sanctuary. His birth is placed in 1084 A. D. and death n 1168 A. D. at the age of 84. He signalised himself by his great works viz. his Sanskrit and Prakrit grammar, his Kāvya Dvyāśraya wherein the history of the Chālukyas of Gujarat themselves is told and illustrations of his grammatical rules are also given and his Deśi Nāmamālā or dictionary of Deśi or local (not Sanskrit) words. It is said that he was once taunted by a Hindu pandit that after all he used the grammar of a Hindu (Pāṇini). He thereupon composed an exhaustive grammar of Sanskrit and Prakrit himself. The grammatical treatise was taken in a great procession laid on the temples of an elephant on which the author was himself seated and was deposited in the royal treasury. It was dedicated to Jayasinha Siddharāja and hence named Siddha Hema. Hemachandra does not appear to have travelled through India, but his influence on Kumārapāla was so preponderant that he procured several privileges for Jains from him and had animal slaughter prohibited on certain days sacred to the Jains.* The preponderance of Jainism in Gujarat may be dated from his time, at least, the great respect which is paid to the doctrine of Ahimsā in that land.

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In the Chauhan country also and as far north as the Sutlej Jainism seems to have spread during this period, so much so that almost all Vaiśyas in Marwar may be said to have accepted Jainism. And these merchants of Marwar have carried Jainism to the farthest parts of India by their sojourn therein for trade. In Malwa and Mewad too, under later kings though they themselves remained staunch Śaivites. Jainism seems to have come into favour at this time, Examples of kings who favoured the Jains have been recorded in the several chapters of this history and it is not necessary to mention them here again.

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