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 218

JAINISM IN KALINGA-DESA so natural that nobody would care to recollect such long intervals since the reign of a particular king unless an era founded by him were in continuous use This king, in the option of Jayaswal, cannot be any other than King Nanda Vardhana, whose date, according to his calculations, comes to about 457 BC. As seen before, there is no historical basis or any other clue in the body of the inscription on which we can rest such an identification, Jayaswal believes that his era exactly corresponds to the information received by Alberuni about the era of Sri Harsha, -and hence whatever Alberum has put down in the form of local traditions about Sri Harslia o has been wrongly identified by the former with that of Nandi Vardhana. To us there seems no reason for such a farfetched identification. There is nothing unnatural if the era began with Nanda I of the Jainas or Mahapadma Nanda of the Puranas. After all that we have seen from the Puranic and the classical accounts about Nanda it is certain that he was great enough for commencing an era in his name We can thus safely identify it with one started by him. Thus the date of the canal referred to in the sixth line would roughly correspond to 320-307 BC, taking the Nirvana date of Mahavira to be 480-467 B.C From what is said in the seventh line we get that Kharavela's wife was of the Vajra family, and Jayasval says: "The name of the queen is either not given or is 'Ghusita (a) ""6 This was the seventh year of his reign, and it seems he had a prince by this time.6 The eighth year of his regnal period opens with an invasion on Magadha He stormed the Gorathagiri fortress of great enclosure by a great army? Line eight is that important one about which we have already talked at length, and which because of a reference to the great IndoGreek king Demetrios greatly solves the most difficult and at the same time the most important problem of Kalinga chronology 1 JB 08 8, x1 ,p 240 : Cf Sachau, Alberuni's India, 1, 5 ICE J BORS, si , p 240 * यजिर-घर-पति शुसितपरिनि -Ibrd, P 227 This Vajra family has been identified by Dr K Anyangar with an ancient dynasty of considerable importance and holding the important territory of Bengal on this side of the Ganges-Some Contributions of South India to Indian Culture, p 89 * J.B O.RS, un, p 227 GHR ... etc-Ibid HEAT ETT HET-AT- Gift Trofunt, etc --Ibid, 11,P 399, and xiu, p 227. 169