The Mauryan Polity c11.s2.t1.4

c11.s2.t1.4

The same observation is true of another child of Hinduism, namely, Jainism. The influence and range of Jainism were much less than those of Buddhism. The followers of this sect did not seem to have spread beyond the confines of Bihar and Ujjain at the commencement of the Mauryan epoch, though there is testimony to show that towards the end of the reign of Candragupta there was a Jaina migration to South India. In spite of the seeming influence of this movement Jainism was still a sect not in conflict with the settled religion of the land. Jainism was a doctrine, but not a religion. Perhaps it is the correct estimate of the writer who, speaking of the time of Khāravela,¹ remarks "Jainism was yet more of a philosophy than a religion of dissenting Hindus".²