History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c41.s6.17

v3.c41.s6.17

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.