Jain Legend Vol 1

Author(s): Hastimal Maharaj, Shuganchand Jain, P S Surana
Publisher: Hastimal Maharaj Shugan C Jain P S Surana

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This way, Lord V abhan tha became the first king of the declining happiness cycle. He ended the kulakara system that was in vogue until then and established a new order. The moment the Lord took over the reins of the kingdom the karmayuga commenced and the bhogabh mi now transformed itself into a karmabh mi. King Vabhan tha now invited his subjects to step onto this karmabh mi and took over the charge of the great new work. Lord V abhan tha was 20 lakh p rvas of age at the time of his consecration.
Building a Strong Nation
After his coronation king V abhan tha firstly set up a security department with a security team to establish a good system in place. The person in-charge of this department was called Ugra. He then set up a team of ministers for advice on political affairs and gave each of those ministers charge of their respective departments / sections. The higher officials of different departments were called Bhoga. Thereafter the entire kingdom was divided into 52 janapadas (principalities or districts) and able persons were crowned as smaller rulers to manage those principalities. Under these rulers, several smaller kingdoms were constituted and vassals were placed on the thrones of these kingdoms.
Explaining their duties to those smaller rulers he said – “In the same way as the sun through its rays sucks little quantities of water in the form of vapour from many water sources, without hurting any of these, people may be taxed very little in order to manage the kingdom; and in the same way as the vapours thus drawn by the sun is returned by clouds in the form of rain everywhere, the taxes drawn from people may be spent on activities for the welfare of the people."
Thus after establishing kingdoms king V abhan tha set up an advisory committee of kings for the purposes of sharing ideas on government. He gave those kings titles such as Mah m dalika, M dalika, R janya, K atriya, etc. For the protection of the kingdom king V abhan tha set up four kinds of armies and placed commanders as high level officials in charge of these.
For the sake of prevention of crime, besides the strict rules, the following penal code was put in place:
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