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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
SOCIAL CONDITION
were prominent members of the Managing Committees appointed for temples and are often mentioned as such in inscriptions.[1] There was an interprovincial merchant corporation of Ayyāvoḷe or Ahichchhatra in Karnāṭaka known as Vīra-Baṇañjas, which had representatives in the different towns in the kingdoms of the Śilāhāras. This Corporation occasionally met on market days at different places and often made donations to Jaina and Hindu temples out of the cess levied on different commodities sold in the local markets.[2] .. The Śudras formed the fourth caste. Though their main duty is said to be the service of the higher castes, many must have become artisans as is already recommended by Yājñavalkya.[3] .. The relations between the adherents of the different religions were amicable. Though the Śilāhāras were followers of the Hindu religion, theybulit temples of the Buddha and of the Jaina Tīrthaṅkaras. Gaṇḍarāditya is known to have built a temples of Śiva, Buddha and Jina at Irukuḍi (Rukudī near Kolhāpur).[4] Again, he built a temple of the Jaina Tīrthaṅkara at Ājurikā (Ājre in the Kolhāpur District).[5] It was named Tribhuvana-tilaka, which was one of his birudas.[6] There were probably intermarriages between the Hindus and the Jainas. The Bāmaṇi stone inscription of Vijayāditya records a gift made by the king to a Jaina temple at the request of his maternal uncle, Sāmanta Lakshmaṇa. As the gift is said to have been made as the latter’s gōtra-dāna (family donation), it is not unlikely that Sāmanta Lakshmaṇa was a Jaina.[7] In fact, we know that Gaṇḍarāditya, the father of Vijayāditya, had a queen of the Jaina faith viz. Karnādēvī. His mother Nāgaladēvī also probably belonged to the same religion.
.. It seems that in some social matters there was a gradual change noticed in this age. Take, for instance, the question of meat-eating. From very ancient times the use of cow-flesh was recommended in the offerings of madhuparka, and ṡrāddha. Like several other Smṛitis, the Yājñavalkya-smṛiti also has stated the periods of gratification which the manes feel when different kinds of meat are offered to the Brāhmaṇas at a śrāddha.[8] Aparārka explains all the relevant verses in the Yājñavalkya-smṛiti faithfully, corroborating them with quotations from other Smṛitis as well as Purāṇas. He indicates nowhere that the custom of offering meat at Madhuparka and śrāddha had undergone any change; but he also quotes some passages from other Smṛitis and Purāṇas that show that there was an undercurrent of feeling among thinking people against the use of meat on such occasions.[9] While commenting on Yājñavalkya, I, 156, Aparārka mentions certain usages and customs such as exorcising (abhichāra), killing of a cow at madhuparka, remarriage of widows and marriage with a Śūdra girl as not to be practised, though allowed in sacred works; for they are interdicted in the Kali Age.[10] He cites also a passage from the Mārkaṇḍēyapurāṇa to show that gold can be substituted for a cow at madhuparka.[11]
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In some other matters, however, Hindu society had become more narrow-minded
[1] No. 7, line 64.
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