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56. Jaina In Bṛhatkōnkaṇ 21 Jan 18b.pdf (640.52 kB)

Jaina In Bṛhatkōnkaṇ

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journal contribution
posted on 2018-01-24, 11:01 authored by TENSING CARLOS RODRIGUESTENSING CARLOS RODRIGUES
We said last time that Konkani identity draws from its kshatriya (jaina) and the brāmhaṇa past, along with its vaḍukar origin. The task before us is to trace the journey of this jaina element all the way from Magadha to Konkan. Perhaps the Vengi country, spread over what are today the Godavari and Krishna districts of Andhra Pradesh, played a great role in this journey. Vengi was a great meeting place of roads according to Jouveau-Dubreuil; here converged the roads to Kalinga (Orissa), Drāviḍa (Tamilnadu), Karnātic (Karnataka), Mahārāshtra (Maharashtra) and Kosalā (spread over parts of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar). [Subramanian, 1932 : Buddhist Remains In Andhra, v] The jaina people, and with them the Jaina and Buddhist religions in the later millennia, travelled from Magadha to Vengi, and thence to the rest of Deccan and Bṛhatkōnkaṇ. The path would obviously be MagadhaKalingaĀndhra - Konkan; but it could also be, in addition, MagadhaKosalāĀndhra - Konkan. As we have said earlier, Vindhya were sufficiently porous to let an abundant exchange of goods, people and culture between the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the southern peninsula. But through the first route it seems to have been a flood. [Sudhakar, 2013 : Emergence Of Vengi Region As A Seat Of Power, Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research, vol. 2, no. 11, 39] Could there have been a third route : Out of Rajasthan and Gujarat ? Looks inconsistent with our definition of the jaina as the kshatriya from Magadha. But let us not rule out that possibility, however inconsistent it may seem with our hypothesis. What if our hypothesis is wrong ab initio ? What if the jaina inhabited the entire Indo-Gangetic plain, and not just the eastern extremity of it ?

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