Jain Journal 1974 01

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

Page 31

JANUARY, 1974
Hemacandracarya drew freely on the earlier Hindu works on polity. He pays greater attention than any of his predecessors of the Jaina faith to civil and criminal law; recomends the use of säma, dana, bheda and danda, much in the same way as a Hindu writer on Polity would have done; and fearlessly enjoins that war should be carried on boldly, stating that the famous Jaina principle of non-violence to life and of the desctruction caused in war, would not deter him from recommending this measure.74 That Hemacandracarya followed in some measure Kautilya is clear when we note what he stated about a conquered country. After the king had won a victory, he should grant amnesty to the followers of the conquered king, and after considering their wishes, install a scion of the old royal family as the next ruler, provided he was devoted to the conqueror. The new ruler as well as the conquered subjects should be gratified with rewards.75 This may be compared with what Kautilya says in Chapter V, entitled Restoration of Peace in a conquered country in Book XIII, where he has given in detail the measures which the conquering king has to take in order to restore peace in the conquered land.76
Much more than his work styled Lagu-Arhannīti was Hemacandracarya's great personal influence which marks him off from the rest of the eminent Jaina authors on Polity, as one who did the greatest good to the country. When on the death of King Siddharaja-Jayasinhadeva, there was a period of inter-regnum in the history of Anhilvada, the capital of Gujarat, three names including that of Kumarapala were laid before the nobles of the Court who sat in council, to determine as to which of them was to be the king. It was then that Kumarapala was chosen and installed as the new king and that a new age in the history of Gujarat began an age which was illumined as much by the munificence of Kumarapaladeva as by the sagacity, humility, and religious fervour of Hemcandracarya. The latter became the guide and the guru of the new monarch." It is impossible to describe within the limits of a small article the incalculable good which this great Jaina thinker did to Gujarat and to India. We can at best only summarize his main activities. It was Hemcandracarya who induced the king to forego the claim of the State to the property of those died issueless. It was under his influence that Kumarapaladeva gave up the use of flesh and wine, ceased to take
115.
74 Cf. Law, N. N., Studies in Indian History & Culture, pp. 260-261 (London, 1925). 75 Hemacandra, Laghu-Arhanniti, II, pp. 66-68. (With a Gujarati commentary, Ahmedabad, 1906). See also Ghoshal, op. cit., p. 492.
76 Kautilya, ibid., Bk. XIII, Ch. V, pp. 437-439; text, pp. 408-410. 77 Read Indraji, op. cit., pp. 181-194.