Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

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

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STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
[Ch. VIII
Rājanyas
The Rājanyas are also mentioned in the Brāhmaṇical works and the numismatic legends. The term 'Rajanya' appears to be a synonym with Ksatriya' in the Purusa Sūkta hymn of the Rg-Veda' where reference is made to the four social orders, viz. Brāhmana (priest), Rājanya (prince or warrior), Vaiấya (commoner), Sūdra (servile class).
A class of nobles, being of the kingly family formed the Ksatriya class of the later times in a nascent form. In the periods of Pāṇini" and the Mahabhāratu” the Rajanyas appear as a distinct ruling republican Ksatriya clan.
The numismatic evidences support the literary accounts as recorded in the above mentioned works that they were a ruling republican Ksatriya clan, as it is revealed by the legend of their coins in Brāhmi and Kharosthi scripts: "Rājanya Janavadasa”.
Obv. Humped bull to L. Rev. Rājanya Janavadasa standing figure.
These coins may be assigned to the later half of the first century B. C. It appears from the find spots of their coins that they were probably settled over Mathurā and some region in the Mathurā and some region in the western or north-western Rājpūtānā.?
A critical study of all these literary and numismatic evidences shows that the Rajanyas of the Bhs were a Ksatriya clan in Vaisali and other regions at the time of Lord Mahāvīra.
Ikşvākus (Ikkhāgā)
The Iksvākus appear also in the Brāhmaṇical and Buddhist works as the celebrated Ksatriya clan which produced many
1 Rgveda, X, 90; Pāṇini, IV.2. 104; Mbh. Sā. Parva, Ch. 81. 2 Cambridge History of India, Vol. 1, p. 485. 9 Rgveda, X, 90, V, 12. 4 Panini, IV, 2. 104; See also Katyāyana. 6 Mahābhārata-Santi Parva, Ch. 18. & Cambridge History of India Vol. 1, p. 485, ? Age of Imperial Unity, p. 160 ;.