JAINISM IN ANCIENT KASHMIR

                

                                    

JAINISM IN ANCIENT KASHMIR: A LIVED ŚRAMAṆA PRESENCE IN THE VALLEY

 The religious history of ancient Kashmir is often narrated through the dominant traditions of Buddhism and Kashmir Shaivism. This emphasis is understandable, for both traditions left behind an extraordinary intellectual, literary and architectural legacy. Yet the religious history of Kashmir was never confined to a single tradition. The Valley was a meeting ground of diverse religious and philosophical currents, including Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, Buddhism, Jainism and other Śramaṇa traditions. Jainism, although it never became the dominant religion of Kashmir and never established a large territorial kingdom in the Valley, was nevertheless a real and lived presence. It was represented by ascetics, lay followers, merchants, scholars, shrines, religious debate and literary memory.

 The evidence for Jainism in ancient Kashmir is dispersed rather than monumental. Unlike Buddhism and Shaivism, Jainism did not leave behind a large surviving architectural landscape in the Valley. Much of its material heritage has disappeared, been destroyed, reused or remains unrecognised. Yet the literary record, archaeological clues, references in Sanskrit and Persian sources, the testimony of travellers and the presence of identifiable Jain individuals together establish an important historical fact. Jainism was present in Kashmir not merely as an abstract doctrine known from distant India. It was practised, discussed and represented by people who lived in the region.

 The archaeological evidence, although requiring careful interpretation, is particularly significant. Some art historians and scholars have drawn attention to the emaciated, crouching and almost naked ascetics depicted on terracotta tiles recovered from Harwan and from other archaeological sites such as Kutabal, Semthan, Ushkur and Hutmurrah in Jammu and Kashmir. These figures have traditionally been associated with Buddhist or Shaivite asceticism. However, their precise religious identity remains a matter of scholarly debate. The Ashmolean Museum describes comparable Harwan tiles as depicting ascetics who may have belonged to a sect other than Buddhism, possibly the Ajivikas. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has catalogued one such object as a tile depicting Ajivaka ascetics. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, while accepting the Buddhist affiliation of the Harwan complex, has observed that the presence of emaciated nude ascetics is difficult to explain and has suggested that they may be more readily understood within a Shaivite context.

 This uncertainty is historically important. The figures cannot automatically be labelled Jain. Nevertheless, the possibility that some of these ascetics may reflect Jain or related Śramaṇa traditions deserves serious investigation. The Harwan material demonstrates that ascetic traditions of different kinds were present in the cultural environment of ancient Kashmir. The existence of Ajivika, Buddhist, Shaivite and possibly Jain ascetic ideals within the wider religious world of north-western India makes it dangerous to assign every ascetic image to a single religious tradition. The figures may represent different communities, or the artistic vocabulary of one religious tradition may have absorbed motifs associated with another.

 Ajivika was an important sect of ancient India. Its ascetics are traditionally described as practising severe austerities, living in organised groups and, in some cases, going without clothing. They were known for extreme asceticism and for a life of severe restraint. Some scholars regard Jainism, Buddhism and Ajivika as important branches of the wider Śramaṇa movement, which developed in opposition to the ritual dominance of the Vedic sacrificial order. According to Buddhist sources, Makkhali Gosala, the founder of the Ajivika sect, was a contemporary of Gautama Buddha and Mahavira. Some traditions even associate him with Mahavira before the two became doctrinal rivals.

 The three traditions, Buddhism, Jainism and Ajivika, thus belonged to the wider religious world of non-Vedic renunciation. They questioned the supremacy of ritual sacrifice and placed extraordinary emphasis upon ascetic discipline, karma, liberation and the transformation of the individual. The presence of such traditions in the north-western regions of the Indian subcontinent makes it historically plausible that Kashmir, which stood at the intersection of the Indian, Central Asian and Gandharan worlds, was exposed to them.

              (The author inside the MET Museum,  New York, near the Harwan tiles on display)

 The evidence from the Harwan tiles must therefore be approached with scholarly caution. It would be incorrect to claim that every nude or emaciated ascetic depicted there was a Jain monk. At the same time, it would be equally premature to exclude Jainism from the religious environment represented by such images. The identification of some tiles as Ajivaka, the association of others with Shaivite asceticism and the continuing scholarly debate itself reveal a religious landscape in which several traditions of renunciation existed in proximity.

                                                       

               (A Harwan terracotta tile inside MET Museum, New York  ...Photo by author)

 The wider historical movement of Jainism towards the north-west is well established. The noted American scholar and art historian Pratapaditya Pal observed that, unlike Hinduism and Buddhism, Jainism did not appear to have travelled overseas on a comparable scale to Sri Lanka or Southeast Asia. However, he argued that both material and literary evidence demonstrated that Jains travelled northwards by land as far as Kashmir and Afghanistan in pre-modern times. This observation is of particular importance because Kashmir was not isolated from the great intellectual and commercial routes of northern India. It was connected through Punjab, Gandhara, the north-western frontier and the Central Asian world.

 Professor Muhammad Hameed of the University of the Punjab (Pakistan) has also drawn attention to the evidence for flourishing Jain communities and Jain religious and secular heritage in Punjab and Sindh before the arrival of Islam. Jain historical sources refer to communities in Sindhusagara, Bhera, Taxila, parts of Chakwal and other regions of Punjab from a very early period. These notices are supported by Chinese travel accounts and by archaeological investigations associated with scholars such as Sir Aurel Stein and Sir John Marshall.

 The importance of this evidence lies in geography. Ancient Kashmir was not separated from these regions by an impermeable cultural boundary. The movement of merchants, monks, scholars, manuscripts and ideas between the Punjab, Gandhara and Kashmir was a continuous historical process. Jainism therefore reached Kashmir through the same networks that brought Buddhism, Brahmanical traditions, Central Asian influences and various forms of philosophical debate into the Valley.

 The Jain tradition itself preserves memories of an early presence in the north-west. The oldest extant reference to Jain political influence in northern India is associated with the Hathigumpha inscription of King Kharavela of Kalinga, which refers to his conquest of regions of the Uttarapatha in the second century BCE. Jain traditions also associate Mahavira with journeys through northern India. Some sources connect him with Shvetambika, identified by some scholars with the region of Sialkot. Although such traditions require careful historical evaluation, they demonstrate the geographical reach of early Jain memory.

 The archaeological discoveries at Taxila are especially significant in this context. Sir John Marshall's excavations brought to light remains associated by some scholars with Jain presence in the wider north-western region. Sir Aurel Stein also reported remains that have been interpreted in connection with Jain establishments in the region around the Jhelum. These discoveries form part of a larger pattern of Jain movement across northern India and the north-west.

 Kashmir's own textual traditions provide further evidence. Kalhana's Rajatarangini is indispensable for any study of the religious history of the Valley. It records the presence of different religious communities and reflects the extraordinary plurality of Kashmir's intellectual life. The Nilamata Purana also refers to worshippers of Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti, Surya, Ganapati, Buddha and Jina. These worshippers are identified respectively with Vaishnavas, Shaivas, Shaktas, Sauras, Ganapatyas, Bauddhas and Jainas. Such a list is important because it places the worshippers of Jina within the religious geography of Kashmir itself.

 The most direct evidence occurs in a celebrated verse of the Rajatarangini. Kalhana records that a Shravaka named Ratna caused a beautiful image of Jina, Lord Neminatha, to be made on Rajavataka hill:

 

तत्रैव राजवटके शैलेऽकारयच्छ्रावको रत्नः ।

मणिबिम्बं जिनेन्द्रस्य नेमिनाथस्य सुन्दरम् ॥

 

The verse may be translated as follows:

 (There, upon Rajavataka hill, the Shravaka Ratna caused to be made a beautiful jewelled image of Jina, Lord Neminatha.)

 This reference is of exceptional importance. It does not merely mention Jainism as an external doctrine. It names an individual, Ratna, identifies him as a Shravaka and records his patronage of a shrine or image dedicated to Neminatha, the twenty-second Tirthankara. The date associated with this event is the tenth century, around 932 CE. This is direct evidence of a Jain lay follower living in Kashmir and possessing sufficient resources and religious commitment to establish a shrine or image.

 The term Shravaka is itself significant. It means a listener or disciple and ordinarily refers to a lay follower of Jainism. In Kashmir's historical and literary records, the word provides an important clue to the nature of Jain presence. Jainism in Kashmir was not necessarily represented by a large territorial community or a powerful Jain dynasty. It was more often embodied in individual Shravakas, merchants, patrons, scholars and ascetics.

 Three terms are particularly important in understanding the references to Jainism in Kashmir. The first is Shravaka, meaning a listener or lay disciple. The second is Jaina, meaning a follower of the Jina and, by extension, of the Jain tradition. This term becomes more prominent in later sources, including Persian accounts such as the Ain i Akbari of Abul Fazl. The third is Nirgrantha, meaning one who is without bonds or knots. This is an ancient term used in Buddhist and Sanskrit literature for Jain ascetics and the Jain monastic tradition. Buddhist sources used the term in connection with Mahavira and his followers.

 These terms should not be treated as interchangeable in every context. Shravaka generally identifies the lay follower, Jaina identifies the religious affiliation, and Nirgrantha belongs particularly to the older vocabulary of ascetic renunciation. Their occurrence in historical and literary sources demonstrates that Jain communities and Jain ascetics were known within the intellectual world of Kashmir.

 The Jain presence was also connected with Kashmir's extraordinary culture of learning. Jain historical traditions record that the great twelfth-century Jain scholar Hemacandra sought grammatical material preserved in Kashmir in order to prepare his celebrated grammatical work, the Siddhahema. The Prabhavakacarita, a Jain historical text dating from the late thirteenth century, is associated with this tradition. Kashmir's Sharda tradition was renowned for the preservation of Sanskrit learning, and the movement of texts between Kashmir and other centres of scholarship demonstrates the Valley's position within the intellectual networks of medieval India.

 The presence of Jain scholars and texts in Kashmir must also be understood against the background of the Valley's multilingual and intellectually plural culture. Sanskrit was the language of high learning, while Prakrit and other linguistic traditions were used by Jain communities across India. Jainism made an enormous contribution to Indian literary culture by adopting Prakrit as a vehicle for religious teaching and canonical literature. The use of the language of ordinary people gave extraordinary impetus to the development of Jainism also made major contributions to Indian philosophy, education, art and architecture. Its central ethical principle is ahimsa, or non-violence towards all living beings. This principle is extended to the smallest forms of life. Jain discipline therefore developed an exceptionally rigorous ethic of restraint. Even honey is traditionally forbidden because its collection may involve violence towards bees.

 The Jain tradition is associated with twenty-four Tirthankaras. The last was Vardhamana Mahavira, while the first was Rishabhanatha or Rishabhadeva. Jain traditions connect Rishabhadeva and Arishtanemi with ancient Indian religious memory, and names associated with Rishabha and Arishtanemi have been discussed in relation to Vedic literature. The Vishnu Purana and Bhagavata Purana also describe Rishabhadeva as an incarnation of Narayana. The twenty-third Tirthankara, Parshvanatha, is traditionally associated with Varanasi and is generally placed many centuries before Mahavira.

 Jainism is a religion of self-discipline and liberation. The individual must achieve spiritual freedom through right belief, right knowledge and right conduct. These are traditionally known as the Three Jewels. The Jain path does not depend upon a creator deity who intervenes to rescue human beings from the consequences of their actions. Liberation is achieved through the purification of the soul and the destruction of karmic bondage.

 The two principal sects of Jainism are the Digambara, meaning sky-clad, and the Shvetambara, meaning white-clad. Both traditions possess their own histories, texts and philosophical developments. Jainism also places extraordinary emphasis upon reverence for spiritual teachers, from the ordinary mendicant to the perfected Jina.

 The religious diversity of Kashmir provided a natural setting for philosophical interaction among such traditions. The ninth-century Sanskrit play Agamadambara by Bhatta Jayanta is particularly valuable. The work satirises different religious traditions and reflects the complex religious and political environment of Kashmir during the reign of King Shankaravarman, who ruled from 883 to 902 CE. Digambara and Shvetambara Jain monks appear within the religious world represented by the play.

 The protagonist Sankarshana is a young and dynamic orthodox student of Vedic learning whose intellectual career begins with opposition to Buddhists, Jains and other heterodox traditions. The very presence of Jain monks within this literary debate demonstrates that Jainism was sufficiently visible in Kashmir to become part of the region's philosophical and political discourse.

 Bhatta Jayanta was also the author of the Nyayamanjari and Nyayakalika. His work belongs to the great intellectual culture of Kashmir, where philosophical debate was not confined to one religious tradition. References to his Nyayapallava appear in the Jain philosophical work Syadvadaratnakara of the Jain logician Vadideva. Such intellectual connections demonstrate that Kashmir's philosophical traditions were not isolated from Jain intellectual networks.

 Jain influence can also be traced in literary and devotional references. The Kashmiri Sanskrit poet Bilhana opens his play Karnasundari with a Mangala Charana, an auspicious invocation, in the form of a hymn to Jineshvara. This reference has been discussed in relation to the history of Jain manuscript culture and literary traditions.

                                                        

                                                (Relevant page of Panchastavi...Photo by author)

 The Panchastavi, an ancient Sanskrit religious text associated with Kashmir, has been recited in Kashmiri Pandit homes for centuries. The text was written in Kashmir and has remained part of the region's religious memory. Its Kashmiri translation and the reference in the Sakalajanani Stava to Jainendra or Mahavira being worshipped alongside other deities are significant. The presence of Jina within a religious vocabulary that also invokes Shiva and other divine figures reflects the pluralistic character of Kashmir's religious world.

 Lalleshwari, the great fourteenth-century Kashmiri mystic, is also associated with a verse in which the names Shiva, Keshava and Jainava appear together:

 Shiva, Keshava ha Jainava.

 Whether the precise interpretation of the term Jainava is debated or not, the occurrence of the term in the textual tradition associated with Lal Ded is important. It reveals that Jain identity and Jain terminology were not unknown in the religious vocabulary of Kashmir.

 The question of Ashoka and Jainism in Kashmir has also occupied historians. Edward Thomas, in his 1877 work Jainism or the Early Faith of Ashoka, discussed the tradition that Ashoka introduced Jainism into Kashmir before Buddhism became dominant. The Rajatarangini contains traditions concerning Ashoka and his relationship with the religious history of Kashmir. Later Persian historical traditions, including the Ain i Akbari, also preserve the belief that Ashoka was connected with the introduction of Jainism into the Valley.

 These traditions must be examined critically. The historical Ashoka is overwhelmingly associated with the patronage and spread of Buddhism, especially after the Kalinga war. Yet the Kashmir traditions concerning Ashoka and Jainism cannot simply be dismissed. They may preserve memories of competing religious traditions, local historical developments or later attempts to interpret Kashmir's religious past. What they demonstrate with certainty is that Jainism had become sufficiently embedded in the historical memory of Kashmir to be associated with the earliest phases of the Valley's religious history.

 The Jain presence in Kashmir also appears in traditions concerning Sharda Peeth. According to a Jain scholarly tradition, when Adi Shankara visited Sharda, he encountered Jain and Buddhist monks and engaged them in philosophical discussion. Whether every detail of this tradition can be historically verified, it reflects an important understanding of Sharda as a centre of intellectual encounter where different religious communities participated in debate.

 The religious history of Kashmir was therefore not a simple succession in which one faith replaced another. Buddhism, Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism, Jainism and other traditions coexisted, competed, influenced one another and participated in a shared intellectual culture. Jainism remained a minority tradition, but minority does not mean absent.

 The Jain contribution to Indian civilisation was far greater than its numerical presence in Kashmir. Jainism contributed to philosophy, ethics, literature, education, painting, architecture and manuscript culture. Its artistic achievements include the great Jain caves and sculptures of India, the Jain monuments of Mount Abu and Girnar, the Jain temples of Rajasthan and Gujarat, the Jain art of Khajuraho and the monumental statue of Bahubali at Shravanabelagola. Jain painting traditions, including manuscript illumination, represent one of the great achievements of Indian art.

 The Jain ethical principle of ahimsa also possesses a special resonance in the history of Kashmir. Kashmir developed its own traditions of philosophical refinement, spiritual discipline and non-violence. The Jain insistence that every living being possesses value and that liberation requires restraint, self-control and the renunciation of violence belongs to the wider moral universe of Indian civilisation.

 The later history of Jainism in Kashmir reveals a gradual decline in its demographic presence. Before 1990, more than forty-four Jain families were reportedly living in Kashmir. Today, only a very small number of Jain families remain in the Valley, largely concentrated in Srinagar and engaged traditionally in trade. The decline of the Jain community is part of the wider disappearance of several ancient religious communities from the Kashmiri landscape.

 The disappearance of a community does not mean that its historical presence never existed. Indeed, the disappearance of physical remains makes the textual record even more important. Much of the Buddhist archaeological heritage of Kashmir has vanished or been damaged. Jain archaeological evidence is even more limited. Yet the surviving literary material, scattered references, archaeological objects and memories preserve enough evidence to justify sustained research.

 The central conclusion is therefore clear. Jainism was not a foreign doctrine merely mentioned in the books of Kashmir. It was a lived Śramaṇa presence. Its adherents lived in the Valley, its monks participated in religious and intellectual debate, its lay followers patronised images and shrines, its scholars interacted with Kashmir's great centres of learning and its religious vocabulary entered the literary traditions of the region.

 The evidence is necessarily uneven. Some claims require further archaeological verification. Some traditions belong to later historical memory and must be distinguished from contemporary evidence. Some terracotta images remain difficult to identify with certainty. Scholarly integrity demands that these distinctions be maintained.

 Yet historical caution should not become historical erasure. The cumulative evidence is too substantial to ignore. The Shravaka Ratna of Rajavataka, the references to Jainas in the Nilamata Purana, the Jain and Buddhist communities described in Kashmir's literary world, the Digambara and Shvetambara monks represented in Agamadambara, the Jain intellectual connections with Kashmir's centres of learning, the memory of Jain presence in the Sharda tradition and the survival of Jain families into modern times together establish a continuous historical thread.

 Jainism may never have been the dominant faith of Kashmir. It did not create a great Jain empire in the Valley. It did not leave behind a landscape of monumental temples comparable to those of Rajasthan or Karnataka. But history must not measure presence only by political power or monumental architecture. A religion is also present when a person lives by its ethical principles, when a monk travels through a region, when a merchant supports a shrine, when a scholar seeks its manuscripts, when its doctrines are debated and when its name enters the literary memory of a civilisation.

 Jainism was present in Kashmir in precisely this manner. It was a small but enduring strand in the religious and intellectual fabric of the Valley. Its history remains insufficiently studied, and a systematic investigation of Jain textual references, archaeological remains, manuscript traditions, trade networks and oral memories may yet reveal much more.

The task before scholars is therefore not to manufacture a Jain past for Kashmir, but to recover the Jain past that the evidence already indicates. The Valley's history becomes richer, not diminished, when its religious plurality is acknowledged. Kashmir was a land where many paths of spiritual inquiry met. Buddhism, Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Jainism all formed part of this complex civilisational landscape. Jainism was one of those paths. It was not merely remembered in Kashmir. It was lived there.

 In addition to the sources already cited, the following works and institutions may be consulted for a more systematic study of Jainism and the wider Śramaṇa traditions in ancient Kashmir and the north-western Indian subcontinent:

 

(1)     Kalhana, Rajatarangini, especially the Sanskrit text and the translations and annotations of M. A. Stein.

(2)     The Nilamata Purana, particularly its references to the religious communities of ancient Kashmir.

(3)     Bhatta Jayanta, Agamadambara, for the representation of Jain and Buddhist communities in ninth century Kashmir.

(4)     Prabhavakacarita, for the traditions concerning Jain scholars and their connections with Kashmir.

(5)     Abul Fazl, Ain i Akbari, for Mughal period references to Jain traditions associated with Kashmir.

(6)     Sir Aurel Stein's archaeological and historical investigations in Kashmir and the north-western regions.

(7)     Sir John Marshall's archaeological work at Taxila and the wider Gandharan region.

(8)      The Archaeological Survey of India reports relating to Kashmir, Gandhara and the north-western regions.

(9)     The Annual Reports of the Archaeological Survey of India for excavated sites in Jammu and Kashmir.

(10) The Bulletin of the Asia Institute, including the study by Pratapaditya Pal on evidence for Jainism in Afghanistan and ancient Kashmir.

(11) The collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ashmolean Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, particularly their catalogues of Harwan terracotta tiles and ascetic figures.

(12) The writings of Paul Dundas on Jainism and Jain history.

(13)  Padmanabh S. Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification.

(14) A. N. Upadhye and other scholars of Jain philosophy, history and textual traditions.

(15)  Studies of Jain manuscript painting and the western Indian manuscript tradition, including the work of Ratan Parimoo.

(16) Research on the history of Jainism in Gandhara, Taxila, Punjab, Sindh and Afghanistan, since these regions formed the geographical and cultural corridor connecting Jain communities with Kashmir.

(17)  Studies of the Śramaṇa traditions of ancient India, particularly the relationship between Jainism, Buddhism and Ajivika.

(18)  Research on the history of Sharda Peeth and Kashmir's Sanskrit intellectual tradition.

(19) Studies of Jain trade networks and merchant communities in northern India, Punjab and the north-west.

(20) Contemporary research by scholars of Jain history, Indology and Kashmir studies, including the work of Professor Muhammad Hameed and Professor Nalini Balbir.

 A comprehensive future study should bring these sources together with archaeological surveys of Kashmir. Such research may be especially valuable at sites where religious identities have traditionally been assigned too quickly. The Harwan terracotta tiles, for example, deserve renewed interdisciplinary study involving art history, archaeology, epigraphy and the comparative study of Jain, Buddhist, Ajivika and Shaivite ascetic iconography. The history of Jainism in Kashmir is therefore still unfinished. The evidence already available establishes a foundation. The next task is to deepen it.

 

( Avtar Mota )

 ( This essay is a registered copyright material published in Avtar Mota's book, 'Kashmir: The Crown Jewel of Indic Civilization '. available on Amazon  )

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