MANUAL OF THE NIlAQIRI DISTRICT. 



253 



Early 

 History. 



Wtether or not Buddhism, and simultaneously or subsequently CHAP. XI. 

 Jainism/ had made much progress in the south peninsula prior to 

 tlie introduction of Brahmanism is doubtful ; but if the intro- 

 duction of Brahmanism is placed about the Christian era, it pro- 

 bably succeeded these religions in some parts at least of the 

 peninsula, and certainly in the Dekhan ; for we know that Bud- 

 dhism had been extending its domain rapidly iu the fifth and fourth 

 centuries B.C., and that in the eighteenth year of Asoka's reign 

 (B.C. 245) Buddhist missionaries were sent to Mdhishamanda- 

 lara (perhaps Mysore) and to "Waniwdsi or Bdnawdsi, the capital 

 of the Kadamba dynasty, on the river Varada, north of Mysore. 



- The home of Buddhism and of Jainism in the south was probably 

 Mysore and K4rn4ta generally, but undoubtedly Buddhism 2 and 

 still more certainly Jainism spread over the tracts further south. 



i Buddhism probably lingered in Mysore until the tenth or eleventh 

 century, whilst Jainism is not yet extinct.^ The Jain faith was 

 very prevalent in Mysore, increasing in power as Buddhism 

 declined, becoming predominant in the early centuries of the 

 Christian era. Its power fell with the conversion of Vishnu 



i Varddhana, the Hoysala Bellala king, in the twelfth century. 



I *' The rock inscription at Sravana Belgola/ which describes the 



' migration of a body of Jains from Ujjayani under the leadership of 

 Badra Bahu in about the fourth century B.C., seems to record the period 

 of their first introduction into Mysore. Of the history of their settle- 

 ment in this country little is known, but the oldest authentic inscrip- 

 tions^ of the south show them to have long held an influential 

 position in the early centuries of the Christian era, and all the earliest 

 Hterature is Jain. Three Chera kings of Kongu in the first and second 

 centuries had a Jain guru, and Jains were gurus to the same line of 

 kings down to the fifth century. A Jain named Akalanka confuted 

 the Buddhists at the court of Hemasitala in Kanchi in ?88, and a 

 century later, Amogha Varsha, king of Kanchi, had as his guru 

 Jinasenacharya, reputed as the author of the chief Jain puranas. The 

 state of Humcha, Shimoga District, founded in the seventh or eighth 



' The Jains are distinguished from the Buddhists by the rejection of the doc- 

 trine of Nirvdna and by the worship of saints, or Thirthankaras ; but, like Bud- 

 dhists, they are divided into monks and laymen. Some of these Jain monks went 

 3tark naked. The moral code of the Jains is expressed in five maha-vratas or 

 great duties — refraining from injury to life, truth, honesty, chastity, and freedom 

 Trom worldly desire. There are four dharmas or merits — liberality, gentleness, 

 piety, and penance ; and three sorts of restraints — government of the tongue, of 

 the mind, and of the person. 



- See Cunningham's Ancient Geography, Southern India. Hnen Thsang did not 

 i'isit the Mysore country or mention it, but proceeded north-west from Conjeveram 

 .io Konkanapura, probably Anegundi on the Tungabadra, opposite to the site of 



' There are still 13,000 Jains in the province. 



* In Hassan, Mysore. Here is the gigantic image of Gomatesvara. 



* Mercara Platea— iTidtan Antiquities, I, 363. 



