Jain Thought and Culture

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: University of Rajasthan

Page 59

The Riddle of Chanakya and Kaut.lya
49
Jain by faith (savao)
The boy Chanakya was born with full-grown teeth At that time there were staying in his house some Jain saints (sahu) When they saw it they predicted that the new born baby was destined to be a king Chanaka, who was a religious minded person, considered earthly kingdom to be a hell, and so he scrapped out the baby's teeth 47 At this the saints predicted that Chanakya would then rule by proxy (ettahe vi bimbamtarioray a bhavissar tti) When he grew up, Chanakya was educated in the fourteen branches of knowledge of the Jains in all of which he became highly proficient. The rest of the story of his life as told in these works (his marriage, the insult of his wife at her mother's house, his resolve to acquire wealth, his Pataliputra visit and insult by the Nanda king, his vow to destroy the Nandas, his chance meeting with Chandragupta, the daughter's son of the headman of the village of the peacock-rearers or Moraposagas, his making away with the boy from that place,48 his preparation for the war against the Nandas, his initial reverses and ultimate success etc) need not detain us here
The other stream of the Jain tradition which is special to the Katha literature is best represented by the Brihatkathakosa of Harishena (931 AD ), Aradhanasatkathakosa of Nemidatta (c 1530 AD), the Aradhanasatkathaprabandha of Prabhachandra and the Kathakosa of Srichandra These authors appear to have derived the tradition from the Bhagavati Aradhana of Sivarya, which is assigned to the first century AD 49 The fossils of this tradition are found embedded in the Painnas also which are included in the canon of the Svelambaras and the Angabahya literature of the Digambaras The date of Painnas is not definitely known but as Kundakunda and Umasvamin who, belonged to the first half of the first century AD, made a thorough use of the Angabahya texts, "the downward limit to which the Painnas could be assigned, might be fixed at about 100 B C 2''50
According to the Brihat kathakosa of Harishena, in his old age Chanakya became a Jain monk Once, alongwith five hundred
47 According to the Buddhist tradition Chanakya himself had his teeth removed 48 According to the Jain sources Chankya took Chandragupta to his own place and according to the Buddhist works to Taxila It is in perfect agreement with the evidence of the Classical writers according to whom when Alexander invaded India Chandragupta was staying in that city
49 Chatterjee, op cit, p 609
50 Ibid p 610