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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
242
OLD BRAHMI INSCRIPTIONS
that the Hathi-Gumpha text (I. 4) has praised him as Gamdhavavedabudha, "one who was versed in the science of music-the Gandharvalore." This goes at once to show that sava-vijā of Khāravela's inscription includes the science of music which is not mentioned in the first adjective.
Secondly, the fact that King Kharavela ventured, in the very second year of his reign, to defy so powerful a rival as King Satakarni in triumphantly marching with all the four divisions of his army amply attests that he excelled, even while he was yet a prince, in the art of war and warfare (yujjha-yujjhāpana-kiriyā), which is to say, that sava-rija in Kharavela's inscription is meant also to include yuddha-vidya. The same inference may be drawn from the many acts of valour recorded in the Hathi-Gumpha inscription.
Nevertheless, the expression sava-vijā, as employed in Kharavela's inscription, suffers from vagueness and indefiniteness. What was precisely the traditional total of vidya (sciences and arts) prescribed for the educa tion and training of Indian princes in the days of Kharavela we cannot say. The Milinda pañha (circa first century A.D.) mentions the total as nineteen (vacanena ekunavisati), while the Nidana-katha of the Pali Jataka-com. mentary (Fausböll, Jātaka, I. p. 58) speaks of twelve (dvadasavidham sippam), including archery (dhanuggaha).
The Vatsyâyana Kama-Sutra enumerates the ancient Indian sciences and arts called yogas under sixty-four heads (catuḥṣasthika yoga), implying that by the time the Sutra was compiled in the extant form (circa 3rd or 4th century A. D.), the traditional total came to be reckoned at sixtyfour. This total, once established, continued to be in use and gained a proverbial character in the later Hindu expression catuḥsaṣṭi-kala. The Kāma-Sutra enumerates, as pointed out by Raja Rajendra Lala Mitra,1 the sixty-four yogas as sciences and arts to be learnt and practised by "the young maidens aspiring for the position of court-ladies or for that of expert courtezans, either alone or in the company of their tutors, fellow students, friends of the same age, etc." Strangely enough, Sridhara Svami in his commentary on the Bhagavata-Purana, represents the Yadu princes Baladeva and Vasudeva as learning the sixty-four science and arts.
Although references to all or most of the sciences and arts can be traced in such an ancient Buddhist work as the Digha-Nikaya, Brahmajala-Sutta,
1. Rajendra Lala Mitra's translation of the Lalita-Vistara, pp. 186-8,
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