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 143

JAINISM IN NORTH INDIA. the ... fasting day; for they said "Since the light of intelligence is gone, let us make an illumination of material matter!"" Besides these two quotations from the Jaina Sutras there is something about a king, Jiyasattu, in the Uvasaga-Dasao which, if taken in the light of the interpretation of Dr Hoernle, is of the utmost importance when we are examining the relations that existed between Cetaka, the Licchavi king, and the Jainas In the first of the ten lectures of this seventh Anga of the Jainas we find in the reply of Sudharma ? to the question of Jambu what was the purport of it-V12 "Truly, Jambu, at that time and at that period, there was a city called Vaniyagana ... Outside of the city of Vanyagama, in a north-easterly direction, there was & Ceiya called Dupalasa. At that time Jiyasatta was king over the city of Vaniyagama... There also lived then in Vaniyagama a householder called Ananda, who was prosperous and without any equals, "At that time and at that period, the Samana, the blessed Mabavira arrived on a visit, and a company of people went out to hear hum Then King Jiyasatta also went out to hear him, just as King Kuniya had done on another occasion, and having done so ... he stood waiting on him." 4 The Jiyasattu mentioned here has rightly been identified by both Drs Hoernle and Barnett 5 with Cetaka or Cedaga, the maternal uncle of Mahavira, because Vaniyagama, the city of Jiyasattu, was, as we shall see later on, either another name of Varsali or some portion of it which was so called. To quote Dr Hoernle. "In the Suryaprajnapati Jiyasattu is mentioned as ruling over Mithila, the capital of the Videha country. ... Here he is mentioned as ruling over Vaniyagama or Vesali. On the other hand Cedaga, the maternal uncle of Mabavira, is said to have been a king of Vesali and Videha .. It would seem that Jiyasattu and Cedaga were the same persons." & Furthermore, the King 1 Jacobi, S BE, XXu , P 266 95 . one of the eleven disciples (Ganadhara) of Mahavirs, who succeeded him as head of the Jains sect, being himself succeeded by Jambu, the last of the so-called Kevli "Hoernle, op at, p 2, n 5 Ananda is known to the Jajnag as a typical example of a faithful lay-adherent of Jarnagm C Herdacondra, Yoga-Sastra, chap 11, v 151, Hoernle, op cit, pp 7 f Ibid, pp 8-7,9 Barnett, op art, Int , y v For further references to Juyusatta in the eighth and the ninth Argas of the Jatias see abrd, pp 62, 113 * Hoernle, op cit, 0, 0. 100