Jainas in History of Indian Literature

Author(s): Jinvijay
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

Page 52

JAINA WORKS ON POLITICS
[37 and M. Vallauri has quoted some passages from it in his Italian translation of the first Adhikarana of the Kauţilīya'. From these quotations it appeared, as if the Nitiväkyāmrta had largely and unduly copied from the Kauțiliya or were a kind of paraphrase of it. But in looking over the book as a whole, we find that it is really very different from the Kauțiliya and very far from being a mere plagiarism. It is true that Somadeva has taken many passages literally or almost literally from the Kauțiliya and that in other cases he has paraphrased the words of Kautilya. Somade va probably thought that his readers would recognise the passages in question as being quoted from what must have been the standard work on Arthaśāstra at his time. If he had written in English, he would perhaps have marked these passages by inverted commas. For Indian readers this was unnecessary. Prof. Jolly has, however, already pointed out, that the Nitivākyamrta differs from the Kauțiliya in some important details.
But above all the character of the two books is quite different. The Kautilīya is a pure ArthaŠāstra, in which dharma is only acknowledged in so far as it may also contribute to the acquirement of artha, while in the Nītivákyāmrta the term niti is used not only in the sense of “political wisdom” but also of “moral conduct". It begins almost like a Dharmaśāstra with the words : अथ धर्मार्थफलाय राज्याय नमः । यतोऽभ्युदयनिःश्रेयससिद्धिः स
: 1 Bri: gacalentate: 1 1 Rivista dogli studi Oriental, VI, Roma 1916, p. 1317 ff.