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JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXI, No. 1. July 1996
This is perhaps no better exemplified than in the case of "Kumārapāla, who is said to have enforced vegetarianism throughout his realm, is nowhere said to have given up warfare".59 In fact, "No Jain monarch had the enlightened sentiments of Ashoka in this respect, and nowhere in the whole body of Jain literature is a plea for peace between states to be found such as that in the Buddhist Excellent Golden Light Sūtra". Moreover, "despite its (emphasis on) nonviolence, Jainism never strongly opposed militarism; several great Jain kings were conquerors".60
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Thus it is no surprise that Somadeva, a practical man as he appears to be in his Nitiväkyämṛtam, he strongly rejected the earlier Jaina tradition of abandonment in favour of world-affirming philosophy in the pan-Indian tradition of Kautilya for which he has been unduly criticised as not expounding the Jaina polity and concept of kingship.61 No doubt, there is much similarity between Somadeva's Nitivākyāmṛtam and Kautilya's Arthasästra, but Somadeva's ideas are in harmony with the pan-Indian tradition of political thinking, going back to Kautilya (and perhaps even earlier).
However, if it is argued that Somadeva relies heavily on Kautilya, whom he mentions at several places, and even quotes (without due credit according to contemporary standards), or paraphrases the earlier authority at some places, as has been shown by Jolly, so can be argued that Kautilya also relies on previous authorities whose works are no longer available. And if they were available today, and a close comparison were made possible we may arrive at the same conclusion re. Arthasāstra, 62 the identity of whose author, whether it be Kautilya, Chanakya or Vishnugupta is still in doubt. In fact, it is quite possible that Arthasastra was written by a Jaina monk, as has been recently argued by Goyal.63
Thus we may conclude that
[i]n spite of Somadeva's indebtedness to previous writers on political philosophy, he cannot be declared to have made no contribution to
59. ibid., p. 88.
60. B.A. Saletore, Medieval Jainism, with special reference to the Vijayanagara Empire, Bombay: Karnatak Publishing House, [1938], pp. [101]-102. 61. Basham in SIT, p. 89.
62. ibid. loc.cit.
63. For example, Dundas argues, Somadeva's Nitiväkyämṛta "barely shows any Jain traits at all"; "all the textual material is, in any event, highly idealised" (Dundas, DJW, p. 177); cf. also Saryu Doshi (ed). Homage to Shravana Belgola, Bombay, 1981, p. 47).
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