________________
72
SOME JAINA CANONICAL SOTRAS
architecture. The vatthuvijjā and vaddhakisippa as understood in a comprehensive sense included as subjects of study the planning and founding of cities, towns and villages, the erection of buildings of various styles, palaces, council-halls, forts, gateways, decorative designs, selection and sanctification of sites, examination of soil, selection and preparation of building materials, laying out of parks, gardens and the rest. The architects were known as thapatis or vuddhakis. Carpentry. wood-carving, stone-masonry, etc., were all connected with the art of building.
The early Jain and Buddhist texts bear evidence to the progress made in Jyotişa which was otherwise known as Nakkhattavijjā or study of the lunar constellations, their positions, movements, cataclysms and effects. In Buddha's time people were familiar with the phenomena of lunar and solar eclipses, the names of the seven planets, the appearance and disappearance of the comets, and the succession of three or six seasons. The experts in Jyotisa were required to make forecasts of all coming events, celestial or terrestrial (Aupapātika Sūtra, secs. 36 and 107; cf. Digha Nikūya, i, p. 10).
The consecration of king Kūniya (variant Koniya), son of king Bhimbhasāra (variant Bhambhasāra, Pāli Bimbisāra, Bimbasāra of the Lalitavistara) in the city of Campā is the grand occasion when Campā was visited by Mahāvira. The scene of action is laid in the Puņņabhadda cetiya (ceic) which was evidently a Yakkha shrine. This shrine was surrounded on all sides by large woodlands. The august presence of the Master is said to have attracted a large number of visitors including all sections of the citizens and all high officials of the State and different Ksatriya tribes such as those of the Licchavis and Mallas, the Iksvākus and Jñātrs. King Bhimbhasāra, father of Kūņiya, does not appear to have been present at the ceremony of his son's consecration. The queens of king Kūņiya are said to have been headed by Dhāriņī in some sections and by Subhaddhā in other contexts. Vajirā, who is mentioned as the wife of Ajātasatru and daughter of king Prasenajit of Kosala, is conspicuous by her absence in the Jain account. Even the political connection of Anga having Campā as its capital with the kingdom of Magadha is not indicated. Whether Kūņiya was consecrated to the rulership of Anga and Campā as an independent monarch or simply as a Viceroy of his father, the text is silent on this point. Even it may be doubted whether Kūņiya of the sūtra is the same person as Ajātasatru of the Buddhist texts and Purānas. The tendency of the compiler of the sutra is to describe all persons and things connected with Mahāvira
