Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

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Sec. IV]
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
In this regard some Jaina texts throw a welcome light upon the solution of the problem of succession arising out of heirless kingship. In such cases the ministers gave counsel to the king to beget sons through levirate by bringing the monks to the palace on the pretext of listening to their religious sermons and performing the worship of holy images. On their refusal to the royal proposal they were compelled to cohabit with the queens of the harem under the threat of penalty of death. Sometimes the unwilling ones of those monks were executed.*
One does not come across any example in the BhS that a woman has succeeded to the throne in the absence of a male heir to the kingdom. In this regard only one Jaina text-the Mahanisiha" refers to the succession to the throne by a widowed daughter of a heirless king after his death.
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In some Jaina texts there are references to the system of selecting a successor to the vacant throne by the divine will manifested through the horse, elephant, pitcher, chowrie and royal parasol.4
It is said in the commentary of the Uttaradhyayana that on the death of the heirless king of Bennayaḍa, a procession of five divine articles, viz. an elephant, horse, a consecrationpitcher, chowries, and a parasol, was organized and led by the
1 Brhat. K. Bhasya-4. 4948; also cf. Kusa Jataka (No. 531. V. 278ff.); also Cf. Anguttara Nikaya V, p. 81 ff; Vide Life in Ancient India as depicted in Jain Canons-Dr. J. C. Jain (p. 51. 18 f).
Brhat. K. Bhāṣya-4. 4948.
* Mahänisiha-p. 30; It is stated in the Kandina Jataka I (No. 13, p. 155) "infamous is the land which owns a woman's sway and rule, and infamous are the men who yield themselves to women's dominion", but sometimes one comes across examples when women wielded the actual sovereignty. "On Udaya's death no king was set up and it is told that the commands of his widow Udayabhadda were promulgated" (Udaya Jataka, No. 458 IV, p. 105), Vide Life in Ancient India by Dr. J. C. jain, p. 52, 22f.
4 (In the Kathakosa translated by Tawney, p. 4; f. note, it is said "an elephant with a pitcher of water roams about for seven days and chooses a person as king".); Vide Life in Ancient India by Dr. J. C. Jain, p. 52, 23 f.