Jain Journal 1973 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 24

OCTOBER, 1973
67
texts till the time of their first edition under Devardhi Gani in A.D. 4541. Of the Jaina Sūtras we shall be concerned mostly with the Uttarādhyayana Sutra, and to some extent, with the Ācāranga Sutra. It will be seen presently that Professor Beni Prasad's verdict on the Jaina Sutras in general, viz., that "To the student of Governmental theory the Sutras as a whole are rather disappointing" cannot be entertained.
One of the earliest Jaina writers who deal with a significant aspect of political life, was Haribhadra Suri (circa A.D. 705-775), the author of Dharmabindu. In this didactic work he gives a long list of duties of a Jaina layman. One of these was refraining from disrespect to the kings. Haribhadra Suri's work was more inclined on the side of Dharma than on that of politics and Government.
Chronologically the next great figures amongst the Jainas were those of Jinsenacarya and of his gifted pupil Gunabhadra. Both were the authors of one and the same work, the first part of which was called Adipuräna and was written by Jinasena. Jinasena was the preceptor of the powerful Rastrakuta king Amoghavarsa (A.D. 815877), and was the author of at least two other works the poem Pārs vābhyudaya, Vardhamanapurāņa, Jinendra-Guņastuti, the last two of which are said to have been lost. Jinasena's pupil completed the work by writing the Uttarapurāņa in A.D. 897, in the reign of king Amoghavarsa's successor Krishna 117. The fact that Gunabhadra was the preceptor of King Krishna II is proved by a Sanskrit commentary on Gunabhadra's Ātmānusāsanam. It is thus clear that both Jinasena and Gunabhadra, the teacher and the pupil, were closely associated with the Rastrakuta
1 Jacobi, H., Jaina Sutras, Part II, Intr. p. xl. (Sacred Books of the East, Vol.
XLV, 1895. The Part 1 of the Jaina Sutras was published in 1885 as Vol. XXII
of S.B.E. 2 Beni Prasad, Theory of Government in Ancient India, p. 229 (Allahabad, 1927).
Haribhabra Suri, Dharmabindu, I. 31. On the date of Haribhadra, see Winternitz, A History of Indian Literature, II, p. 479. Read also Ghoshal, U. N., History of Indian Political Theories, pp. 351, 464 (Oxford, 1959).
Rice, Lewis, Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions, p. 67 (London, 1909). 6 Bhandarkar, R. G., Early History of the Deccan in the Bombay Gazetteers
Series), p. 200. Dr. J. F. Heet seems to have identified this Jinasena with his name, who was the author of the Harivamsa (written in A.D. 783-84). See Heet, History of the Kanarese Dynasties (in the Bombay Gazetteers Series), p. 407 (Bombay. 1896). Professor Beni Prasad denies that both are the same. Beni Prasad, op. cit, p. 221, note (1).
Beni Prasad, ibid, p. 221, note (1). ? Heet, ibid, pp. 407-408 • Heet. ibid, p. 411.