Jaina Political Thought

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

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of the human body politic as being created out of the cosmic person with the same powers and functions. The cosmic person is conceived in terms of four faculties and these are hypostatized into Brahmana, Rajanya, Vaisya and Sudra. In other words the social order of the four vamas is seen correspond to a fundamental division of cosmological principles. There is a correspondence between what obtains cosmically (adhidaivatam) and what obtains socially (adhibhutam). Cosmically the mouth or speech is the power of revelation and wisdom. Agni, Brhaspati, Mitra, symbolize this power. The priesthoodcorresponds to this at the social level. The hands of the cosmic person refer to the power of willing and commanding including the protecting of the law and gaining victory over Darkness at the cosmic level. It is the power of Indra or Varuna and is representedsociety by royalty. The sustaining or supporting power signified by the things at the cosmic level is the herding'and nourishing power of pluralgods like the Maruts. It is at the social level represented by the multitude of the common people. The feet of the cosmic person refer to the power of sustaining by ministering to needs. The Gods Pusan and the Earth illustrate it at the cosmic level and at the social level the Sudras represented it.
In this social fourfold or its earlier version of a threefold consisting Brahma, Ksatra and Visah, there is a division into the ruler and the ruled. The rulers consist of the upper two varnas and the ruled of the rest. It was not originally conceived as the three caste system but rather as the specification of two offices which together directed and ordered the multitude. The similarity of this division to the Platonic has been remarked more than once. "The three parts of the soul (or body politic) thus evidently correspond in hierarchy to the Brahma, Ksatra and Vis, is respectively the Sacerdotium, Regnum, and Commons of the Vedic tradition in which the Sudra is represented by the asuras) and there can be no possible doubt of the superiority of the sacred to the royal character. 8
The union of Brahma and Kastra corresponding to the unity of Mitra Varuna is in psychological terms the unity of cousel and power. Kratu-daksau ha va asya mitravarunau. Etannuadhyatmam. Sa yad eva manasa kamayata idam me syad idam kurviveti sa eva / kartur atha yadasmai tat samrddhyate sa dakso. Mitra eva/Kratur Varuno dakso brahmaiva mitrah Ksattraṁ Varuno abhigantaiva brahma karta Ksattriyah" (S.B. 4.1.4.1.). The correspondence of the cosmic and the social extends to the psychic. 'Whatever one wills by the mind, that this is what I should do', that is Kratu. And that by which it succeeds the Daksa. Mitra is Kratu, Varuna is Daksa, Brahma is Mitra, Ksatra is Varuna, Brahma is the knower, Kastriya is the executive (Karta).
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