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A Short History of Jaina Law
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Nītivākyāmstam, by contrast, is an entirely secular text on statecraft modeled on the Arthaśāstra of Kautilya (ca. 3rd century B.C.E. - 1st century C.E.) with barely noticeable emphasis on Jaina morality. The most influential medieval Svetāmbara text concerning the laity is the Yogaśāstra and its auto-commentary by Hemacandra (12th C.E.) who was closely linked with King Kumārapāla of the western Cālukya dynasty in Gujarat. The first Svetāmbara text detailing life-cycle rituals is the Ācāradinakara of Vardhamānasūri of the Kharatara Gaccha (1411 C.E.).
While Jaina concepts of kingship and statecraft were never systematically implemented and considered obsolete already under Muslim rule, Jaina ethics is still evolving. Scripted liturgical and life-cycle rituals left their mark both on the ritual culture of the Jainas and on the customs of contemporary 'Jaina castes' which, though purely 'secular' from a purely doctrinal perspective, emerged in the medieval period generally through the conversion of local rulers by Jaina monks. Compilations of 'Jaina law' texts produced by modern Jaina reformers in the 19th and early 20th centuries focused exclusively on the only legal domain which was initially exempted from codified Anglo- Hindu law, that is the rules of Jaina 'personal law' concerning the role of property in contexts of marriage, adoption, succession, inheritance, and partition. At the centre of concern was the division of property, or dāya-vibhāgam. Medieval Digambara texts with chapters on 'personal law' are the Bhadrabāhu-Saṁhitā (ca. 8th-15th century C.E.), the Vardhamānanīti of Amitagati (ca. 1011 C.E.), the Jina Samhitā of Vasunandi Indranandi (10th century C.E.),12 and the Traivarņikācāra of Somasena (1610 C.E.).13 The pioneering Bhadrabāhu-Saṁhitā was cited by all later texts, even by treatises of Svetāmbara authors such as the Arhannīti of Hemācārya (121h14th century C.E.). 14. They usually follow the example of Brahmanical works such as the Manusmrti (ca. 2nd century B.C.E. - 19 century C.E.), which in parts is influenced by earlier Jaina
