History of Jainism
After the 12th century, the temples, pilgrimage, and Jain ascetics suffered persecution during the Muslim rule, with the exception of Akbar, whose religious tolerance and support for Jainism led to a temporary ban on animal killing during the Jain religious festival of Paryushana as a result of efforts made by the Śvetāmbara monk Hiravijayasuri.
[9][10] The Jains claim their religion to be eternal, and consider Rishabhanatha the founder in the present time-cycle, who lived for 8,400,000 purva years.
Some scholars claim Jainism was followed in the Indus Valley Civilization, reflecting native spirituality prior to the Indo-Aryan migration into India.
[56][57] According to 5th century Śvetāmbara scripture Avashyak Bhashya by Jinabhadra, the Digambara sect was formed as result of a rebellion by a monk named Sivabhuti.
According to a later Digambara story, during Chandragupta Maurya's reign, Acharya Bhadrabahu moved to Karnataka to survive a twelve-year-long famine.
The latter is mentioned in ancient texts of Buddhism and of the Śvetāmbara sect of Jainism, and it is attributed to Makkhali Gosala, a contemporary of the Buddha and Mahavira.
[65] Bhagavati Sutra, one of the 45 canonical scriptures of the Śvetāmbara sect of Jainism refers to the Ajivika founder as Gosala Mankhaliputta ("son of Mankhali").
Śvetāmbara text Bhagavati Sutra mentions a debate, disagreement and then "coming to blows" between factions led by Mahavira and by Gosala.
It is a highly polished stone artwork of precise human form, but it is unclear if it belongs to Jainism, Ajivikas or some other Indian religious ascetic tradition.
[69][71] Ancient naked terracotta statues discovered in the 1970s near Ayodhya are similar to the Lohanipur Torso, but those artworks also lack Jain iconography.
[74] The entire story may be apocryphal and fictitious as Ashoka himself contributed for the growth of Ajivikas sect by constructing four caves for Ajivakas at Barabar.
[83][84] According to a chronicle of von Glasenapp,[85] Gardabhilla (c. 1st century BCE), the king of Ujjain, abducted a nun who was the sister of a Jain monk named Acharya Kalakasuri.
He is claimed to have defeated the Sakas, expelled them, himself followed Jainism and gave ancient India the Vikrami calendar with the zero date of 57 or 58 BCE.
[93] Buddhist scriptures record that during Prince Siddhartha's ascetic life (before he attained enlightenment and became Buddha) he undertook many fasts, penances, and austerities, mentioned in the Jain tradition.
[98][99] Their mutual interaction, along with those of Hindu traditions have been significant, and in some cases the titles of the Buddhist and Jaina texts are the same or similar but present different doctrines.
According to Akira Hirakawa, the monasteries were easier targets for destruction and elimination, and Buddhism almost vanished from the Indian subcontinent after the Muslim invasions.
[103][104] The Hindu gods are recorded by some Jain writers as persecuting, tempting, afraid of, or serving a legendary Jina before he gains omniscience.
According to Paul Dundas, these satires were aimed at the Hindu lay householder community, were means to inculcate piety and subvert the actual religious teachings offered by their Jain neighbors.
[103] True to their origins, Buddhist and Hindu scholars engaged in creating similar satire, mythology and parody-filled fiction targeting the Jains and each other.
According to a 1925 publication by von Glasenapp, around the 8th century CE, Adi Shankara brought forward the doctrine of Advaita, and either converted Jain temples to Hindu ones or completely destroyed them.
[121] Bittideva's general and prime minister Gangaraja, states Tukol, was "a Jaina who under the guidance of his Guru Subhachandra did many acts of piety and religion to advance the cause of Jainism".
[121] The Vijayanagara Empire king Bukka Raya I, states von Glasenapp, ensured that both Vaishnava and Jaina traditions enjoyed same cultural and religious freedoms, and helped repair Jain temples.
The text mentions him stating to a Muslim sheikh, that "a creator god (called khuda) is impossible, one who presides over others, allots reward and punishment", instead it is karma that determines man's ultimate destiny.
For example, Jinadatta Suri in the 12th century, wrote during a time of widespread destruction of Jain temples and blocking of Jaina pilgrimage by Muslim armies, that "anybody engaged in a religious activity who was forced to fight and kill somebody" in self-defense would not lose merit.
[132] British era Christian invaders wrote about Jainism, but typically stereotyping it as "a coldly austere religion of pure asceticism, with no 'heart', preoccupied only with not harming microorganisms".
They criticized the Jain theories on non-violence stating that this value is essentially equal to "doing nothing", because it entails not "hurting" other beings, but does not demand the "positive ethic of helping someone suffering".
However, Long states, the genesis theories in Christianity and other religions suffer from equivalent issues and they present the world to have been created few thousand years ago, in a short period of time.
[136][137][138] M. Whitney Kelting in 2001 states, in contrast, that in Gujarat and Maharashtra, British merchants actually took over the trades that Jains traditionally engaged in.
[137] The British colonial government in India, as well as Indian princely states, passed laws that made monks roaming naked in streets a crime, one that led to arrest.
He then led an India-wide tour as the naked monk with his followers, to various Digambara sacred sites, and he was welcomed by kings of the Maharashtra provinces.
