Jainas in History of Indian Literature

SR No.: 006590
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jinvijay
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1946
Total Pages: 80
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 4 MB

Page 49

341
JAINAS IN INDIAN LITERATURE,
The Dharmaśāstra has always been the domain of the Brahmans, and the Jainas do not seem to have produced anything in this śāstra.
$11) Jaina works on politics. It is surprising that the Jainas have paid special attention to the Arthaśāstra which is, "a worldly science" par excellence. Jaina leg-. ends, as told in Hemacandra's Parisista parvan, make Cāņaky a, the minister of Candragupta Maurya, a devout Jaina. If this legend had any historical back-ground (which I doubt), and if the author of the Kautiliya-Arthasāstra were really identical with Candragupta's minister (which I doubt even more), one might think that the famous Arthaśāstra was somehow connected with the Jainas. But it is not at all proved that the Kauţiliya-Arthasāstra can really be ascribed to Candragupta's minister. It is far more probable that it belongs to the early centuries after Christ. The whole tendency of the Arthasāstra as far as religious matters are touched, is thoroughly Brahmanical. There is only one passage where one could be inclined to think of Jaina or Buddhist influences. Here (Shama Sastri's 2nd. Ed. p. 409, XIII, 14, 176 ) we read: ... चातुर्मास्येष्वर्धमासिकमघातं पौर्णमासीषु च चातूरात्रिक राजदेशनक्षत्रेष्वैकरात्रिकं योनिबालवधं पुंस्त्वोपघातं च प्रतिषेधयेत् ।
"He (viz. a king who wishes to pacify a conquered country) should prohibit the killing, of animals on the Cāturmāsyas for half a month, on full-moon festivals for four days, on the asterisms sacred to the King or to the country for one day; and he should also prohibit the killing of