Book Title: Chanakya Explored in Jaina Literature
Author(s): Nalini Joshi
Publisher: Firodaya Prakashan

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Page 192
________________ 182 [K] Jñātādharmakathā, the sixth Ardhamāgadhi canonical text is totally comprised off narratives and analogical tales. The 14th chapter that of the first part contains a story of Tetaliputra Amatya. When read the story carefully with all intricacies, we feel that the whole story of Tetaliputra Amatya is overshadowed with the lifestory of Amatya Cāṇakya, somehow knowingly or unknowingly. The wicked king; rearing up of a prince by the minister; anointing the prince on the throne; the smooth administration in the initial years; king's changed attitude towards the minister; the minister's childlessness and voluntary death at the end - certainly reminds the reader the story of Amatya Cāṇakya described in the Avaśyaka and Niśītha-cūrṇis which is neatly presented in the Parisiṣṭa-parva. We can find the sources of the story of Tetaliputra in the biography of Cāṇakya in a very elaborate manner, but since it is a subject of a separate research paper, we cannot lengthen the subject at this place. It is also noteworthy that the 10th chapter of Rṣibhāṣita, one of the old Ardhamāgadhī text, repeates the same story of Tetaliputra Amatya in an abridged form, where he is called 'nītiśāstraviśārada' i.e. 'wellversed in the science of polity.' - The Jñātādharmakatha is traditionally known as the Mahāvīravāṇī. The later ācāryas might have thought that they cannot include the Caṇakyan tales in canonical literature due to the fault of anacronism. Many of the chapters of Jñātādharmakatha are written in the classical Ardhamāgadhi which is nearer to the Jaina Māhārāṣṭrī than Ārṣa Ardhamāgadhī. When we grasp the shadow of Cāṇakyakatha in the chapter of Tetaliputra, we can straightly proceed to the conclusion that this chapter is surely an interplotation. [L] In the 14th adhyāya of Arthaśāstra, (viz. Aupaniṣadika) contains four adhyāyas (146 upto 149). All types of abhicāras, mantras,

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