Jainism in North India

SR No.: 011067
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Chimanlal J Shah
Publisher: Longmans Green and Compny London
Publication Year: 1932
Total Pages: 66
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 3 MB

Page 120

JAINISM IN ROYAL FAMILIES literature differs little in this respect also from the Buddhistica), at least from that of the northern Buddhists." I Thus with the material that is at our disposal it is very difficult to historically identify the Asvasena of Benares or Kasi, and the Prasenajit or lus father Naravarman of Kusasthala, but there are other historical and geographical coincidences from which we can deduce certain inferences which may be said to have some historical significance behind them. Now, on the authority of Hemacandra's "Hemakosa," Nundo Lal Dey has identified Kusasthala with Kanauj or Kanyakubja, and this is supported by other scholars also. Furthermore, Dr Raychaudhuri tells us as to how the Pancalas were connected " with the foundation of the famous city of Kanyakubja or Kanauj." 5 Again this fact of there existing side by side the kingdoms of Kasi and Pancala is further supported by both the Buddhist and the Jaina literary traditions. From the Buddhist Anguttara Nikaya and the Jaina Bhagavati-Sutra we know that during this period (i e. during the eighth century B.C.)" there were sixteen states of considerable extent and power known as the Solasa Mahajanapada." & Of these Kasi, among others, is common to both, while Pancala is mentioned only by the former.7 Taking the history of Pancala we find that it roughly corresponds to Robilkhand and a part of the central Doab. "The Mahabharata, the Jatakas and the Divyavadana refer to the division of this state into northern and southern. The Bhagirathi (Ganges) formed the dividing line. According to the Great Epic, Northern Pancala had its capital at Ahicchatra or Chatravati (the modern 1 Jacobi, S.B.E, XXII, Int, IX. "We must leave to future researchers to work out the details, but I hope to have removed the doubts, entertained by some scholars, about the independence of the Jaina religion and the value of its sacred books as trustworthy documents for the elucidation of its early history "-Ibad, Int, P xlvu cf Charpentier, Uttaradhyayana-Sutra, Int , p 25 : "No such person as Afvasena is known from Brahman record to have existed, the only individual of that name mentioned in the epic literature was a king of the snakes (Naga), and he cannot in any way be connected with the father of the Jajna prophet" Charpentier, CHI,1, 154 It may, by the way, be mentioned here that all his life Parsvanatha was connected with snakes, and to this day the saint's symbol 18 a hooded serpent's head Cf Stevenson (Mrs), op cit, pp 48-49 * Dey, op cit, pp 88, 111 4 * Kanyakubie was also called Gadhipura, Mahodaya and Kusasthala"Cunningham, Ancient Geography of India (ed Mazumder), p 707 Raychaudhur, Political History of Ancient India, P 86 "Kanau was primarily the capital of the kingdom of Pancala " _Smith, Early History of India, p 891 * Rayabandhun, op cit, pp 59, 60 Cf Rhys Davids, C.HI,1,P 172 Raychaudhuri, op at, P 60 81