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YASASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
The views of Vyāsa are quoted also by Somadeva, and it is interesting to find Jaina writers drawing on Brahmanical sources to reinforce the doctrine of ahimsā (Yasastilaka, Book IV): होमनानतपोजायब्रह्मचर्यादयो गुणाः । पुंसि हिसारते पार्थ चाण्डालसरसीसमाः ॥ इति...व्यासोक्तिः। यावन्ति पशुरोमाणि पशुगात्रेषु भारत । तावद्वर्षसहस्राणि पच्यन्ते पशुधात काः ॥ इति पौराणिकी श्रुतिः । Ibid. Somadeva's views on the killing of animals in Vedic sacrifices are recorded in the aforesaid dialogue between Yasodhara and his mother. Mallişeņa sums up by saying that just as a cruel man may try to obtain a kingdom by killing his own son, but cannot escape the ignominy and sin resulting therefrom, even if he attains his object, similarly, even though the gods may be gratified by the slaughter of animals sanctioned by the Veda, the sin caused by such killing can never be averted."
The attacks on the authority of the Veda and its religion which we come across in Yasastilaka belong to a class of recriminatory literature directed against Vedic rites by Jaina writers since long before the tenth century. Although the Vedic religion had been obsolete for centuries, it was considered worth while to attack the Veda, since it was the bed-rock on which the superstructure of Brahmanism was claimed to have been built up beyond the ravages of time. Among the many stories invented for the purpose of discrediting the Vedic religion, there are at least three which deserve notice as illustrating the Jaina attitude and mentality in regard to the Brahmanical Scriptures. The earlier version of the story of Sagara, Sulasā, Nārada, Parvata and Vasu related in Jinasena I's Harivar sapurana (cantos 17 and 23) and Somade va's Yasastilaka, Book VII, occurs in the comprehensive Jaina Prākrit romance Vasudevahindi, Chap. V (circa sixth century A. D.). This story is interesting as recording the Jaina allegation that the Veda and its religion were the work of a demon named Kālāsura. The latter is also called Mahākāla, e. g. in Vasudevahindi wherein he is described as a most reprobate god, the minister of Yama. Even a sober philosophical writer like Vidyānandi declares in his Tattvārthaslokavārtika 1. 20. 36 that the followers of Kaņāda attribute the authorship of the Veda to Brahman, while the Jainas attribute it to Kālāsura, Similarly, in an outrageous story preserved in Vasudevahindi (Chap. III), Pippalāda, the reputed author of the Atharvaveda, is described as
1 'यथा किल कश्चिद्विपश्चित् पुरुषः परुषाशयतया निजमङ्गजं व्यापाद्य राज्यश्रियं प्राप्ठनीहते न च तस्य तत्प्राप्तावपि पुत्र__घातपातककलङ्कपक्कः क्वचिदपयाति एवं वेदविहित हिंसया देवतादिप्रीतिसिद्धावपि हिंसासमुत्थं दुष्कृतं न खलु पराहन्यते।' 2 'जमस्स लोगपालस्स अमच्चो परमाहम्मिओ महाकालो नाम देवो जाओ।'
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