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 171

JAINISM IN NORTH INDIA passage in the inscription seems to state that Nanda carried away as trophies the image of the Jina of Kalinga as well as other treasures of the Kalinga kings to Magadha. This statement of the Kharavela inscription finally brings us to the discussion of the relations of the Nandas with the Jaina church. The difficulty that arises in connection with this and the other passage referring to Nandaraja is about the identification of this Nandaraja. While considering the Nirvana date of Mahavira we have seen that there is no reason why this Nandaraja should be identified with Nandivardhana, as Jayaswal, Banerji, Smith and others have done Besides the authority of Charpentier, to which reference has been already made, as Professor Chanda points out, "there is nothing in the Puranas, our only source of information for Nandivardhana, to show that he ever had anything to do with Kalinga. On the contrary we are distinctly told in the Puranas that when the kings of the Saisunaga dynasty and their predecessors were reigning in Magadha, thirty-two Kalingas--that is to say, thirty-two kings reigned in Kalinga in succession synchronously 1 It is not Nandivardhana but Mahapadma Nanda who is said to have brought all under his sole sway' and 'uprooted all Kshatriyas,' or the old reigning families. So we should identify Nandaraja of the Hathigumpha inscription who held possession of Kalinga either with the all-conquering Mahapadma Nanda or one of his sons "* In short, the Nandaraja of the Kharavela inscription is none else but Nanda I of the Jainas or Mahapadma Nanda of the Puranas, because of the later Nandas both the Jaina and the Puranic traditions have nothing to say which can claim for any one of them the triumphant career of the first Nanda. It may be remarked here that though the Puranic and the Jaina traditions confirm each other to a great extent, the Kharavela inscription rightly supports the latter by calling this Nanda king simply Nandaraja, and not Mahapadma Nanda, as the Puranas have done As to the relations of the Jainas and the Nandas, the above reference to the Hathigumpha inscription tells us that some Jaina image was taken away by King Nanda as a trophy, and this, according to Jayaswal, as we shall see in the next chapter, proves the Nanda was a Jaina, and that Jainism was introduced in Orissa 1 C Pargiter, op cit, PP 24, 62 * Chonda, Memorts of the Archaeological Suroey of India, No I, PP 11:12 Raychaudhuri, op al, p 188 128