Life in Ancient India as Depicted in Jain Canons

Author(s): Jagdishchandra Jain
Publisher: New Book Company

Page 57

CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION
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son-in-law?" and the girls were married to the prince. Similarly, a Brahmana girl named Soma was kept in the harem of Kanha Vasudeva to be married to his younger brother Gayasukumala. Later on, however, Gayasukumala did not marry and joined the monastic order of Aritthanemi.38 The king even did not hesitate to lay hands upon the married women. The commentary on the Kalpa sutra mentions king Sumukha of Kosambi, who kept Vanamālā the wife of Viraka in his harem 37 Then we hear of king Vikkamajasa of Kañcanapura, who made the wife of a merchant his queen. The merchant was much grieved, he turned mad and died.88 Further, the Nisitha Cürni mentions king Gaddabhilla of Ujjeni who captured the nun-sister of Kälaka and kept her in his harcm Later on, however, in order to take revenge on him, Kalaka left for Persia from where he brought ninety six kings and waged war against Gaddabhilla.99
The harem was a great source of danger to the king and was, therefore, carefully guarded by eunuchs40 and old men The eunuchs arc mentioned in the Brhatkalpa sutra and its Bhasya. They were excluded from the membership of the Jain Sramana Sangha. About the eunuchs it is said that their nature was womanish, their voice and colour were those of a woman, their penis was long and drooping, their speech was soft, and they passed urine with noise and it was foamy. They walked with a womanish gait looking to the right and the left and behind; they were soft skinned and their bodies were cold to the touch. The Vivagasuya mentions a eunuch who was brought up by his parents to carry on the profession of a eunuch.42
The Jain texts mention the following guards to keep watch over the inmates of the harcm 43
I A kanchukin or chamberlain had a free access to the king as well as the inmates of the harcm.4 He gave reports of the happenings in the harem to the king
45
35 4 5153
33 Anta, 3, p 16f
37 2, p 40a, also Das Cu, 3, p 105
83 Uttara Ti, 18 p 239, the Mancora Jalaka (II, No 194) describes a similar story of a king, who, seeing the beauty of Bodhisattva's wife, got enamoured of her The king sent a man, who placed a jewelled crest in his cart The loyal officers declared lum to be a thief and took him to the cxccution ground, also Dhammapada A. II, 20
30 10
P 571
40 According to Vatsyayana, no man was allowed to enter into the royal harem except relatives and servants and in some provinces artisans, Brahmanas were allowed to get into the harem for supplying flowers to the ladies, with whom they conversed separated by a screen, Chakladır, Studies in the Kamasutra, p 179
41 4 4, 4 5144 f Fourteen classes of eunuchs are distinguished here They are Pandaya, Varya, hina, Kumbh Isiluya. Saunt, Takkammasi, Pakhay ipakkhuya, Sogandhiya ard Asuita (ibid, 5166 f, also Bhi, 3 23, also cf Narada, XII, 11 ff) On cunuchs see Kathasaritsagara, Vol III, Appendix "Indian Eunuchs," pp. 319 329
42 2, p 19
48 Kautilya also speaks of the employment of old women and cunuchs in the harcm, Arthavastra, p 40.
44 Nisi Cu, 9, p 508, according to Vacaspati, a kaucukin has a free access in the harem, he is old, Brahmana by caste, virtuous and clever in every thing (Abhidhanarajendrakośa, under 'kañcuki'). 45 Raya. Su., T., 210
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