Chanakya Explored in Jaina Literature

Author(s): Nalini Joshi
Publisher: Firodaya Prakashan

Page 98

88
* It is the oldest continuous life-story of Cāņakya found in the Jaina
literature, whether the Švetāmbara or Digambara, documented in
a very brief manner. * If supplied with the Niśītha-cūrņi, the story not only reveals the
whole biography of Cāņakya but also the Jaina attitude to look at
him. * All the later Jaina narratives are only the elaborations of the
episodes documented in the Āvaśyaka-cūrņi. Even Hemacandra's Cāņakya-account in the Pariśīsta-parva is not the exception to this fact. ‘Golla' is the birthplace of Cāņakya. If the name designates the region at the bank of the river Godāvari, then it supports the view of T. Ganapathi Shastry, that probably Cāņakya belongs to the southern part of India because, the oldest manuscript of the Kauțilīya Arthaśāstra is found near Trivendrum. This view is not accepted by many scholars. The name of the village viz. Canaka and the name of his father viz. Caņika are conspicuously ficticious and imagined after the name of 'Cāņakya’. On this analogy, some Jaina authors say that the name of his mother was Caņeśvarī. But it is true that the Jaina tradition accepts the name “Cāņakya’ as his first name and has very rerely used his other two names i.e. Vişnugupta and
Kautilya. * When the incidents are narrated, the ĀvCū. invariably calls him
3447 alucht but when it refers to Cāņakya's anthological treatise, it says, '3Trent falfsgenic agi 3449|| \ In the Anuyogadvāra and Nandi also, we find the name of the śāstra as Jolfsge.