Jainism in ancient Bengal during the early medieval period

Subsequently, Jainism was overshadowed by the Buddhist ambience in the Pāla strongholds in North Bengal and adjoining parts of present Bihar and Samataṭa region. Without any royal patronage and in the face of strong current of Brahmanical as well as Buddhist religious ideologies it becomes difficult for a religious ideology to survive on its own. However, Jainism survived during the early medieval period basically in the upland areas of Western Bengal and this was possible probably due to the patronage of the trading community.

In this connection one may recall Dudhpani inscription’s (find-spot: Hazaribagh district, Jharkhand) reference to merchants who travelled from Ayodhya to Tamralipti. This undated inscription has been assigned on palaeographical grounds to about the eight century CE. Significantly, during present field surveys, some inscribed Jain images were documented from different parts of Purulia, Bankura and Burdwan districts. The inscriptions refer to different donors. On paleographical grounds the sculptural remains can be assigned to a period ranging from nineth/tenth to twelfth/thirteenth century CE. It is highly probable that these sculptures were sponsored by the Jain mercantile community.

It is quite unfortunate that not a single epigraphic record of the PālaSena periods has yet been discovered in ancient Bengal which may throw some light on the spread of Jainism in the then Northern Bengal. In this connection we may recall the famous Mūrtiśiva’s Bangarh praśasti. Though the Bangarh stone inscription, issued during the reign of Nayapāla (c.1042-58 CE), is an important document regarding the history and spread of Śaivism in Bengal (Sircar 1975; 1983; Bhattacharyya 1990), however, this inscription makes incidental reference to the presence of Jain monks in the Koṭivarṣa (Bangarh) region of ancient Bengal. This inscription was a chance discovery from Shibbari village, near the Bangarh mound. This inscription refers to the presence of Śaiva teachers (ācāryas) belonging to the Durvāsas sect associated with the Siddhanta school of Golakī-maṭha tradition.

According to this inscription, Nayapāla and his son Vigrahapāla III had converted to Śaivism and there was a huge Śaiva Maṭha at Koṭivarṣa (Bangarh). Verse 22 eulogizes Guru Mūrtiśiva as having defeated the Jain Digambara ascetics in religious discourses.

The inscription also records that he not only defeated them but also overshadowed the fames of Bhṛgu and Prabhākara—

śaśvat-pīta-digamva(mba)r-ārtha-viraha-bhrāntiṃ tiraskurvvatī
kṛṣṇ-ādvaita-kathān=nirasya va(ba) huśo vṛddher abhāvaṃ guṇe

Therefore, it seems that Jainism although at a very low ebb continued its existence in some parts of ancient Bengal and the Śaivagurus had to defeat them in debates so as to establish their overall supremacy.

A series of recent discoveries and extensive field work have helped us to postulate the fact that from the eight-nine century onwards Jainism reached its zenith in the plateau region of ancient Bengal (zone I & zone III of our present study area). The Jain Nirgranthas^[1] lived a comparatively quiet life in the remote, isolated and inaccessible regions of Bengal, of which the Rāḍha provided perhaps the most congenial climate for their existence. Jainism strongly survived in the western and south-western parts of ancient Bengal (Rāḍha region) up to the thirteenth century CE. This region has a long cultural sequence from the prehistoric times to the early/late medieval period, though its cultural heritage received special momentum (with the radiation of sites, construction activities of temples, installation of icons etc.) with the arrival of political lineages and religious ideologies during the early medieval period. This monumental feature of settlement structure is categorically envisaged by the enormous wealth of archaeological relics in the form of abandoned temple complexes, architectural members and sculptural remains of this region. In all probability, the said database is the best signifier of its early medieval sociocultural milieu. Interestingly, the impressive array of Jain sculptures and architectural members in this database substantiate the fact that the region abounds in Jain heritage and it was a thriving Jain centre at least for a considerable time during the early medieval period. This Jain identity is perhaps the most significant aspect to envision the socio-cultural framework of the historical period.

It is rightly believed that the western sectors of Bengal were devoid of the literate tradition that almost generally characterized the social life of people in the other subregions of Bengal in the early medieval period. The general lack of epigraphic material directly associated with Jain archaeological remains of western Bengal is probably explained in terms of this lack of tradition. However, a critical study of some lesser known epigraphical and art historical material from the region might throw light on certain hitherto improperly investigated aspects social and political formations in the region.

Of special interest in the general assemblage of uninscribed Jain sculptures are a few images with inscriptions in corrupt Sanskrit, preserved mostly on these pedestals of these sculptural pieces. All the image inscriptions are engraved on the pedestal of Tīrthaṅkara images. And quite interestingly, the inscriptions are characterized by the use of a localized variety of the Gauḍī script which is highly cursive and at times even aberrant. It is likely that the artists who carved the images were entrusted with the task of engraving the epigraph as well, resulting in the use of the essentially cursive version of the script––not the normalized uniform version used by the specially employed karaṇas. Unexceptionally, all the inscriptions record names of the donors, some of them being precisely designated as dānapati. For example, the image of Tīrthaṅkara Ṛṣabhanātha from Bhabanipur (Pl.I.E), Purulia records the name of a dānapati named Śakalamagana. Similarly, the image of Tīrthaṅkara Pārśvanātha from Tumba (Pl.I.F) mentions the name of the “dānapati”, i.e. dānapati Sanadeva. Contrary to the usual practice, there are instances where the term dānapati is suffixed to the name instead of being prefixed. Thus, the image of Tīrthaṅkara Neminātha from Baramoshya (Pl.I.G) reads vejñadānapati, meaning “[This is the donation of the] dānapati [named] Vejña”. Names of lay donors are also found to form such dedicatory inscriptions. The somewhat peculisr name Pavailāsena appearing on one of the caumukha images from Pakbirra (Pl.I H) is interesting. On the whole, the names appearing on these images clearly reflect an overarching non-Sanskritic affiliation of the donors, explicitly implying the nature of the local patronage.

A completely different, yet closely related picture emerges from the small gamut of stone inscriptions that hail from this sector of western Bengal and the adjoining Jharkhand region. The earliest of these records is the recently discovered Dhuluri stone inscription of about the seventh/eighth century that talk of a prince (yuvarāja) and his preceptor (ācārya). We are aware of the terms yuvarāja/rājaputra figuring on two more inscriptions from the Boram area, datable to about the twelfth/thirteenth century. Further, the Para temple inscription records the name of one Śikharadeva who must have had gained some political footage in the region around the thirteenth/fourteenth century. But, if the evidence of the Dhuluri inscription is considered, the root of an essentially local political formation can be traced to a much earlier period (Sanyal 2016). Thus, the small corpus of epigraphical materials from the study is, besides showing a fair societal lack of a literate tradition, also underlines a strain social-political formation which is often overlooked in the current historiography on Jain art and archaeological literature of the region.

The geographical setting of this region, essentially encompassing the denuded lateritic tract with sparse forest cover, served as the resource bearing zone of metals, minerals and other forest products which encouraged the people of the region to practice non-farming activities as an alternative/seasonal counterpart to their survival strategy. In all probability such an economically viable forest zone seems to have attracted the Jain communities. Certainly the Jain establishment owed its origin primarily to the development of procurement network of metal and minerals, if not other forests products, and the involvement of the Jain community locally known as Sarāks or Srawakas in order to monitor the said functionary. The distribution pattern of resources in and around the plateau region also verifies that the involvement of mercantile agents was responsible for exploiting the manual labor of the tribal groups. Risley suggests that among the Bhumij tribe of this region there is a group called Shelo in Chhotanagpur region who were iron smelters besides the Asura community and their involvement in metal works is a widely accepted fact (Risley 1981: 249). Dalton in his works on the local tradition of the Jain communities augments our knowledge about the Sarāks who were said to be responsible for the monumental character of their religious edifices (Dalton 1866: 186). V. Ball was of the opinion that old copper mines of Singbhum were associated with the local tradition of the Sravaks or the Serawaks or the Jain laity (Ball 1869: 170).

We can infer that the prosperous Jain settlements harboring temples and icons were established along the cardinal routes of procurement network of metal, minerals and other forest products. Rāḍha region was connected with the North and South Bihar plains on the one hand and Orissa on the other by the age-old linkage routes via Chhotanagpur upland and south-western Midnapur. The works of S.K. Saraswati and D.R. Das are also suggestive of the fact (Saraswati, 1976: 261-276; Das, 1997: 107-124). The existing knowledge about the routes associated with such network also suggest the movement of religious propagators mainly along the rivers of Mayurakshi, Kangsavati and Damodar and the major settlements involved in the network are Boram, Chharra, Anaijambad, Ralibera, Palma, Pakbirra, Budhpur and Manbazar in the district of Purulia; Sarengarh, Rudra, Kechanda, Ambikanagar, Chitgiri, Raipur and Satpatta in the district of Bankura.

To build up the theory of trade links Beglar made endeavor to trace the “great old roads” which went from Tamluk to Patna and elsewhere.

In his words-

“There would be a choice of several routes to Patna, the most direct route would be through Bishnupur, Bahulara, Sonatapan, Ekteswar, Chatna, Raghunathpur, Telkuppi, Jharia, Rajauli and Rajgir. It would cross the Salay river near or at Ghatal, the Darikeswar between Bahulara and Ekteswar, the Damuda at Telkuppi, the Barakar close to Palgunjo, the range of hills near Rajauli, and pass into Rajgir by the great South gate thoroughfare, and we see that, at every great obstacle, large cities sprang up, as attested by the remains about Ghatal, about Bishnupur, at Telkuppi, about Palganj, and near Rajauli” (Beglar, 1878/1966: 50).

Beglar also spoke about another great road which went to Benaras-

“… this road would naturally go past Pakbirra and Buddhpur, through or close pasts Barabhum, through or close to Dulmi …, there crossing the Suvarna Riksha close past Ranchi, Palamow across the Son of Benaras. There are remains about Palamow and Ranchi …, and there are extensive remains at Pakbirra and Budhpur. Their occurrences is well explained by the circumstance that the cross road connecting the two great roads from Tamluk to Patna and to Benaras started from Palgunj, going through Katras, Chechgaongarh, Para and Chorra, and striking the great Benaras road at Pakbirra and Buddhpur” (ibid.: 50-51).

In addition to the vast Jain sculptural and architectural remains, we have some inscriptional as well as textual remains which throw ample light on the survival of Jainism as well as the Jain monks in ancient Bengal.

The famous saint Somadeva, the author of the Yaśastilakacampū (Chatterjee 1978: 171-2) , who is also mentioned in an inscription found from Parbhani, Maharashtra, dated Śaka 888 (Premi 1942: 193), and who is described there as belonging to the Gauḍa Saṅgha was originally a Jain saint from Bengal. It is also interesting to note that Somadeva in his Yaśastilakacampū refers to a Jain shrine of Tāmralipta. This temple complex may be identified with the temple ruins at Jinashar of Tāmralipta. We must remember that Jain monks, belonging to this state, were held in esteem by monks, belonging to the other regions of India. This tradition is an early one and during the early medieval time it gained momentum.

Even still later association of Jainism with Bengal may be known from Jain sources. The Jain author Balachandra Suri, (13^th century CE) writes in his tenth chapter of Vasantavilāsa, a early medieval text, that Vastupāla, a minister of the Chalukyan king Birpāla, had visited several Jain temples in the company of the local kings of Lāḍha, Gauḍa, Maru, Dhara etc (Ray 2001: 538).

Undoubtedly, Jainism was a major religious ideology in ancient Bengal, i.e., a major part of eastern India from the eight century CE onwards. This is clearly apparent from the distributions of sites yielding Jain antiquities in form of sculptural and architectural remains. The above discussion on the rise and growth of Jainism in ancient Bengal covering basic the modern territories of West Bengal could be mapped with the distribution of sites for which the following chapter is devoted.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The figures of ācāryas and monks are well known in the Jain art of central India however, it is quite interesting that the Jain images from Purulia and Bankura also bear the depiction of the figures of ācāryas and monks. The depiction of ācāryas and monks indicate that in and around these region Jain monastic system had developed and Jainism had strongly penetrated the local levels of the society. Discovery of Jain votive stūpas and Jain memorial pillars also indicates the popularity of the Jainism and the involvement of the Jain ācāryas and monks.