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SUSHIL JAIN: ON JAINA POLITY AND SOMADEVA'S NITIVAKYAMRITAM
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that what he is relating here is what Rsabha, the first Tirthankara, told his son, Bharata, the first Cakravartin. This message which was heard by Rsabha's chief disciple has been passed down from disciple to disciple until the times of Mahāvīra when it was recited by the chief disciple of that last Tirthankara to Srenika, the king of Magadha, who after listening to it gave up all thoughts of participating in violence of any kind.
The point is implicit : as Gautama instructs Śrenika in the bahaviour of a Jain king, so does Jinasena instructs Amoghavarşa''52 and it is in chapter 42 of the Adipurana we find "a model of normative Jain kingship" which is that the true king “is the one, who, like Bāhubali, abstains from violence and, instead, conquers the spiritual enemies" 53
Still it does not mean that the temporal king, who is a Ksatriya personified, can ignore his dharma, which is to protect his community, doctrine, self, subjects and equality. He must continue to strive for his and his subject's prosperity without violating his dharma which is to be obtained by following the path of right knoledge, right faith and right conduct. However, to seek liberation he must abandon his kingship and renounce all worldly attachments sooner or later as did Rsabha and Bāhubali, and scores lives finished their worldly existence by the vow of sallekhana (fast unto death); the most celebrated case being that of Chandragupta Maurya.54
A reference may be made here to a Jaina canonical work, Uttaradhyayana Sūtra,55 which amplifies the position taken by Jinasena as far as the uselessness of temporal kingship is concerned, and that the only way to achieve liberation is by detaching oneself from worldly attachments, including power, prestige and position of kingship. In Uttarādhyayana (ninth lecture) is recorded a dialogue between the king of gods, Indra (disguised as a Brahman), and Nami
52. Its particular relevance can be seen more specifically in that Jinasena,
the author, was probably addressing it to his patron, the powerful monarch, Amoghavarşa I Rastrakuta, and also because it was, according to legend, the inspiration for that most conspicuous exemplification of the Jain warrior, the statue of Bahubali at Śravaņa Belgola, the focal point of South Indian Jainism" (Dundas, "The Digambara Jain warrior', in Carrithers and Humphrey (eds), The Assembly of Listeners, 1991, p.
176). 53. ibid., p. 177. 54. ibid. loc.cit. 55. ibid., p. 182.
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