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 169

JAINISM IN NORTH INDIA was for only fifty-five years.1 Curtius says: "His father (i.c. Agranimes or Xandrammes' father .c. thic first Nanda-1.c. Mahan padma Nanda) was, in fact, a barber, scarcely staving off hunger by his daily carnings, but who, com his being not uncomely in person, had gained the affections of the queen, and was, by her influcncc, advanced too ncarcr a place in the confidence of the reigning monarch. Afterwards, however, he licncherously murdered his sovereign, and then, under the pretence of acting as the guardian to the royal cluldien, usurped the royal authority, and having put the young princes to death begot thic present king, who was detested and held chcap by his subjects, as he rather took after his father than conducted himself as the occupant of a throne"! Besides tlus agreement between the Jainn and other sources about the non-Kshatriya origin of thic Nandas wc sec that chronologically also Jainas are right if, according to Smith, "tlus event may be dated in or about 413 B.C."9 This is becausc, as we have seen, tlie suzcrainty of Mngadha passed from the hands of the Sarsunagas to those of the Nandas sixty years after the Nirvana of Mahavira, which we have put down bctween 480-467 BC. It may be repeated here that the duration of the Nandas as put down by the Jainas is ninety-five years, and thus anceswith the Puranc traditions. Taking into consideration the tradition based on Merutunga and others, Vincent Smith remarks that "the Jainas, doing still greater violence to reason, extend the duration of the dynasty to 155 years." 4 According to the chronology relicd upon by us tlic period of one hundred and fifty-five years thus alluded to by the great historian does not obtain to the dynasty of thc Nandas, but, as already remarked, it is thc duration between the death of Mahavira and the accession of Candragupta. As it is, our period seems to be acceptable to him, seeing that a period of ninety-one years has been assumed by him as "fitting into a dcfinite chronological scheme" Thus about the base origin, tlic date of the succession, and the duration of the Nandas the Jaina traditions are confirmed by other sources also. Before we enter into the details as to where the Jainas 1 CY McCrindie, Thc Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, p 400 * Iord, p 222 Cr tod, 282, Raychaudhuri, op and loc cil, Pradhan, op and loc cat, Smith, op cit, pp 42-43, Jayaswal, JBOR 8,1, 88 * Smith, op cit, P 48. Iord, p 42 5 Xbid, p 44 126