Jainas in History of Indian Literature

Author(s): Jinvijay
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

Page 65

50] JAINAS IN INDIAN LITERATURE gret, prohibition, reproach, reprimand, confinement to a certain district, imprisonment, and corporal punishment, to which the fine is added as the eighth by the masters of politics”. This is the only passage where the author refers to a Jaina text. And it is the most remarkable feature of Hemacandra's work, that it is written almost entirely from a Brahmanical point of view, and only in a very few places any reference is made to the Jaina creed. All the privileges of the Brāhmans, as well as the rights and duties of castes according to the Brāhmanic system, are fully acknowledged by the Jaina author. Thus, he is in perfect agreement with the Brāhmanic Dharmaśāstras (see Gautama VIII, 12f; XII, 46; Āpastamba II, 5, 10, 16; Bauchāyana, I, 10, 18, 17f; II 2, 4, 1; Manu VIII, 369f; Nārada XIV, 9f. and Appendix 41 ), that neither capital nor corporal punishment should be inflicted on Brāhmans, but that they should be subject only to banishment. But Hemacandra claims the same privilege also for women and ascetics.
He says (I 37) in the chapter on the Kings duties:
अपराधसहस्रेऽपि योषिद्विप्रतपस्विनाम् ।
न वधो नाङ्गविच्छेदस्तेषां कार्य प्रवासनम् ॥ “Even if they have committed a thousand crimes, a woman, a Brāhman, and an ascetic should be never made to suffer capital punishment, nor cutting off of limbs, but only punishment should be inflicted on them”. The same verse occurs, with slight variants, again in the chapter on puni. shments (II, 2, 10,)