Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

SR No.: 001609
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 566
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Story, Literature, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

Page 345

CHAPTER XIII JAINISM AND Other Faiths
POPULAR JAINISM The period of Rāştrakūta hegemony in the Deccan was perhaps the most flourishing epoch of Jainism. Not only in the Rāştrakūta empire but in the feudatory Ganga kingdom (Mysore), the religion of the Arhat enjoyed royal patronage and esteem and the support of the people, especially of the commercial classes. The ninth and tenth centuries
an era of great expansion of Jaina culture in that part of India in the sphere of religion, philosophy and literature. Somadeva's Yasastilaka, a contemporary record of documentary value, throws considerable light on the position of Jainism and its relation to other religions during an important period of Indian history.
In the Deccan of the tenth century Jainism was, as it has always been, the religion of an influential and ambitious minority, and nowhere in Jaina literature is the propagandist note more clearly heard than in Somadeva's Yasastilaka. It would appear that, as late as the tenth century, the charge of being an upstart religion lacking in the prestige of antiquity was levelled against Jainism; and Somadeva tries to prove the ancient origin of the faith by citing the authority of a number of texts and authors, supposed to contain, according to him, appreciative references to the Jaina creed and Jaina monks. Unfortunately some of the authorities cited by him do not seem to be very old, while there are others of a dubious character, if not altogether spurious; and they do not, on the whole, carry him very far in defending his thesis. For example, Somadeva claims to find a reference to the expedient of worshipping a Jaina for the cure of illness caused by his wrath in a verse of the Jyotişa Vedānga, but the verse in question is not found in the latter work and seems to be a quotation from a later astrological text. Similarly, in another text. cited anonymously, Brhaspati is represented as expounding before Indra the Syädvāda doctrine. The quotations from Citrakarman and Adityamata relating to portraits and idols respectively of Jaina Tīrthamkaras* are no doubt authentic and genuine, but the two works cited by Somadeva cannot be very old, although earlier than the tenth century,
1 Yaśastilaka, Book IV. 2 कथं नाम ज्योतिषाने वचनमिदमुक्तम्-समग्रं शनिना दृष्टः क्षपणः कोपितः पुनः। तद्भक्तस्तस्य पीडायां तावेव परिपूजयेत् ॥
Ibid. 3 'सांख्यं योगो लोकायतं चान्वीक्षिकी । तस्यां च स्यादस्ति स्यान्नास्तीति नग्नश्रमणक इति बृहस्पतिराखण्डलस्य पुरस्त समयं
di TTATI Ibid. 4 See Chap. XVIII.
914