‘My Censors of the Law of Piety are employed on manifold objects of the royal favour affecting both ascetics and householders, and are likewise employed among all denominations. Moreover, I have arranged for their employment in the business of the Church (saṅgka) and in the same way I have employed them among the Brāhmans and the Ājīvikas, and among the Jains also are they employed, and, in fact, among all the different denominations.’
This, as Dr. Bühler says, shows that the Jaina occupied a position of no small importance even at that date.
The inscriptions in Māthura dating from the first and second century A.D. also go to prove the trustworthiness of the Jaina historical traditions enshrined in the Kalpa Sūtra, for they show the same divisions and subdivisions of the Jaina schools, families and branches as the Kalpa Sūtra recorded,[1] and they also mention the Kauṭika[2] division (founded by Susthita) which belonged to the Śvetāmbara sect, thus proving the early date of the schism.
After the schism the next great event in Jaina history was the birth of Hemaċandra, his success in winning over to Jainism Kumārapāla (perhaps in A.D. 1125) and the resulting change of the Jaina head-quarters from Bihār, its birthplace, to Gujarāt, which since that date has been the chief centre of Jaina influence.
The legends, however, throw light for us on much of the intervening time, witnessing as they do to the conflicts between Jainism and its two great rivals, Brāhmanism and Buddhism.
Under the rule of Hemaċandra Jainism reached its zenith, and after his time its influence declined. Brāhman opposition grew stronger and stronger, and the Jaina say that their temples were often destroyed. Constant dissensions amongst themselves divided the Jaina community into numberless sects such as the Punamīyāgaċċha, the
