Comprehensive History of Jainism Volume II

Author(s): Aseem Kumar Chaterjee
Publisher: Firma KLM Pvt Ltd

Page 30

COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF JAINISM
Śivaratri Caturdaśī and certain specified dates (including Aştami ad Ekādasi) gave security for the lives of animals (prāņināmabhayapradanan). The expressin amāri is used in this connexion. No life was to he taken, under penalty of fine, for persons belonging to the royal family, and of capital punishment for others. We should remember that at the time of the engraving of this epigraph, Kumārapāla was a Saiva (he is actually given here his usual Saiva epithets). It appears that Albanadeva himself took this vital decision regarding amāri. But it was surely approved by his overlord Kumārapāla. We will have something more to say on this feudatory king, elsewhere in this chapter.
There is another epigraph 18%, found from Ratanpur in W. Rajasthan, of the reign of Kumārapāla, which records an order of Girijādevī, wife of Punapākşadeva, the successor of Rāyapāla (Naddula Cāhamana) prohibiting slaughter of animals on some specified dates. The violation of the order was to be punished with fines. On the Amāvasyā day, even the potters were ordered not to burn their pots. It is interesting to note, that like the inscription of Alhazadeva, this epigraph also prohibits killing of animals on the 11th and 14th day of both the dark and bright halves of the month. The edict was made public through Putiga and Sāliga, the two sons of the Jain (suśrāvakaḥ) gentleman Subhankara, a resident of Nadulapura, belonging to Prāgvața lineage. The inscription unfortunately is undated ; but the opening lines prove that it was engraved during the rule of Kumārapāla. It should, however, be remembered that this is a Saiva epigraph. We should further note that the epigraph of Albanadeva, prohibitiog animal-slaughter, was also made public by these two brothers viz. Pūtiga and Sāliga, the sons of the Jain gentleman called Subhankara. That both these amāri epigraphs were made public through these two brothers, was overlooked by all the previous scholars. It is surely a fact that these two Jain brothers, who were residents of the old town of Naddūla in the