Tulsi Prajna 2006 04

SR No.: 524627
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Shanta Jain, Jagatram Bhattacharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 2006
Total Pages: 122
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 6 MB

Page 112

gāthās containing certain statements about kings and dynasties intervening between Mahāvīra's Nirvāṇa and the introduction of the Vikrama era. These stanzas run as follows
jam rayaṇim kālagao arihā titthamkaro Mahāvīr(o) tam rayaṇim Avantivai ahisitto Pālago rāyā.
Satthi Palagaranno paṇavannasayam tu hoi Nandāṇa atthasayam Muriyāṇam tīsam cia Pūsamittassa.
Balamitta-Bhāṇumittā saṭṭhī varisāņi catta Nahavahane taha Goddabhillarajjam terasā varisa Sagassa cau,
In the night when the Arhat, the Tirthamkara Mahāvīra died, in that night the Avanti-lord Palaka was anointed.
Sixty (are the years) of king Palaka, but one hundred and fifty-five (those) of the Nandas, one hundred and eight (those) of the Mauryas, and thirty (those) of Pusyamitra.
Balamitra and Bhānumitra (ruled) sixty years, Nahavahana fourty, and so the rule of Gardabhilla (lasted) thirteen, (that) of the Saka four.
These stanzas have been discussed by Jacobi,25 Charpentier,26 and others, and there seems to be a general agreement about their interpretation. There is an apparent disagreement between the second gāthā and the tradition embodied in Hemacandra's Parisiṣtaparvan, where it is stated in VI.243 that Nanda became king sixty years after the Nirvāṇa, and in VIII 339 that Candragupta's accession took place 155 years after that same event. It is generally assumed that there is a misunderstanding in the gāthās, and that the period of 155 years there allotted to the Nandas comprises the whole period from the Nirvana to the accession of the Mauryas. And we are now in a position to see how this misunderstanding has crept in. We learn from the Kharavela inscription, if my interpretation is correct, that the earliest way of dating important events with the Jainas was to state the number of years elapsed since the Nirvana. On the other hand we must infer from the Purāṇas that it was usual in India to sum up the duration of individual reigns and of the rule of different dynasties in memorial verses, and it is evident that this practice was later on taken up also by the Jainas. Hence the apparent discrepancy, which is, however, of no consequence for the present discussion.
तुलसी प्रज्ञा अप्रेल - जून, 2006
107