Jain Journal 1996 07

SR No.: 520123
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1996
Total Pages: 58
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 4 MB

Page 9

ON JAINA POLITY AND SOMADEVA'S NĪTIVĀKYĀMṚTAM
SUSHIL JAIN
This paper is about a certain tenth-century Sanskrit text (written by a Jaina author) which is neither on Jaina ethics (lay or ascetic) nor on philosophy, but rather on an unusual subject on which there are few full-length discourses by Jaina authors.
This work by Somadevasūri, Nitiväkyāmṛtam, is on niti or polity (as its title would indicate). Of course, the subject of polity or statecraft has been well-treated by ancient Indian writers; the most famous of them being Kautilya (aka Cāṇakya or Viṣṇugupta), the able minister of Chandragupta Maurya.
Kautilya, however, is not the only author on Indian polity; he is just the most famous, most well-known, and most studied and oftquoted Indian writer on state policy. Kautilya names, at least, eighteen sources, individual authors, or schools of thought on niti that he is, at least, familiar with, and he duly notes his debt to some of them.1
A most ancient source of Indian polity, statecraft, or rājadharma, is perhaps the section called 'Santiparva', the twelfth book of the great Indian epic, the Mahābhārata, commonly known as 'the book of peace', it has a lot to say on the subject of niti (i.e., worldly wisdom) and rājadharma (i.e., duties of the king).
In addition, discussion of nīti, rājadharma, etc. can also be found in the Vedic texts, the dharmasūtras and dharmasastras, purāņas, ancient literary works and folk literature.
Even with all this wealth of material some writers have dismissed the contribution of Indian writers to polity as of little value or consequence. For example, Max Müller says, "India has no place in the political theory of the world".2 And in his foreword to Beni Prasad's book, Professor Arthur Berridale Keith remarked about "the unwise
1. cf. Law, Aspects of Ancient Indian Polity, Bombay, [1921], repr. 1960, p. viii. 2. Cited in Pande, Jain Political Thought, Jaipur, 1984, p. 4. 3. Theory of Government in Ancient India, [1926], repr. 1974.