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

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YAŠASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
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reference inasmuch as the religion of the Ajivakas, if it could be so described, was undoubtedly practised in South India at the time. It should be noted in this connection that Somadeva, contrary to his usual practice, does not mention any doctrines of the sect so that we cannot tell how far any welldefined Ajīvaka system prevailed in his time. All that the reference to the Ajīvaks in Yasastilaka proves is the existence of the sect in the tenth century.
In Yasastilaka VII. 24 Somadeva seems to refer to another sect, although it is not explicitly mentioned. He says that such is the peculiarity of things that the cow's milk is pure but not the flesh, just as the gem supposed to be on the hood of a snake counteracts poison, while snake-poison itself causes death. Again, milk may be taken, but not the cow's flesh; just as the leaves of a poisonous plant may be taken for the cure of disease, while its roots are sure to cause death. Somadeva seems here to reply to an argument that if it was permissible to take milk there was no reason why one should not take beef. Exactly this opinion is put in the mouth of the leader of the Rahamāņa sect in the Jaina allegorical play Moharāja-Parājaya written about two centuries later, wherein he declares that just as one takes cow's milk, similarly one may take also cow's flesh without incurring sin. Rahamāņa says further that according to Dhanika, Dharma consists in the killing of Brāhmaṇa ascetics. We do not know anything about this Rahamāṇa who appears in the play along with the Kaula and the Kāpālika, but the views attributed to him might very well represent those of the Muslims, It is not clear whether Somadeva had in mind the views of any particular sect or community while making the statements cited above, but it was not impossible for him to have been acquainted with Muslim customs, since the contact between Indian and Muslim cultures goes back to a date at least two centuries earlier than the composition of his Yasastilaka.
The conflict of religions in the Deccan in the tenth century should not blind us to the general spirit of toleration prevailing in the age. Much important evidence has been adduced by scholars to prove the existence of concord and harmony in the sphere of religion, and we have referred elsewhere* to isolated attempts at a synthesis of divergent philosophical and religious views in the century.
1 Aiyangar: Manimekhalai in its historical setting, pp. 57, 193. 2 Jágr antalet agafazęt i Faqa TTHET a and 47:11 37491, EU 5 99: 44 hafa
कारणे । विषद्रोरायुषे पर्व मूलं तु मृतये मतम् ॥ 3 रहमाणः-(साटोपम् ) जह पिज्जइ गोच्छीरं पलासणे तह य नत्थि सो दोसो। इत्य य लिगिथवणे धम्मो दिद
for fogor 11 4. 24. 4 See Chap. IX.