Sambodhi 2004 Vol 27

Author(s): J B Shah, N M Kansara
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 43

(E) UTOPTIA AND (E)UCHRONIA IN TRIȘAȘTI-SALĀKĀ-PURUȘA-CARITRA
RAMKRISHNA BHATTACHARYA
Uttarakuru is often found represented in Brāhminical and Buddhist literature as the (E)utopia of ancient India. The legend of a happy land, free from exploitation, class-division, and aggression was first mentioned in the Aitareya Brāhmana (aroung 100 BC.). It was already considered to be a land of the gods (devaksetram, 8.23), consecrated to glorious rule (vairājyam). References to a land near Mount Meru in the northern-most limit of India are found in the Rāmāyana, Mahābhārata and sevaral purānas as well as in the Buddhist ātānātiya Sutta (Dīghanikāya). Hower, the accounts of the features of this land are not all alike. The legend in fact combines within it several motifs and themes that must have emerged at different times and at different stages in India. What is to be noted is that Uttarakuru continued to be cherished as the land of heart's desire through the ages. Though inaccessible to poor mortals, it was believed to be a land that really existed somewhere in northern India. Varāhamihira (b. 505 AD) situates it within India alongwith a kingdom belonging exclusively to women (Strīrājya) in his Bịhatsamhitā, 14.6. (unfortunately we are not told whether the residents of Strírājya (14.22) wrer in any akin to the Amazons of Greek mythology).
In contrast to the Brāhminical and Buddhist traditions Uttarakuru is conspicuous by its relative rarity in Jain literature. The index of Prakrt proper names offers little in regard to either the supposed location of Uttarakuru or the mode of existence of its citizens. The land is described as a sub-region in the Mahāvideha region of Jambudvīpa, at the north of the mount Mandāra. It is crescent-shaped and axtends from east to west (the measures are mythical). The people grow up into adults in forty-nine days only and perpetually enjoy the best era known as susamā-susamā. Uttarakuru is also the name of the presiding deity of this region, as well of a lake, a summit of two mountains and a garden outside the city of Sāgeya (Sāketa).