Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-7nlkj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-30T17:16:55.344Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Republic of the Nāyas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

J. P. Sharma
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

If it were not for the birth of Mahāvīra amongst the Nāya-Khattiyas of Kuṇḍapura, we should probably never have heard of this people. It is mainly in connexion with the last Tīsrthaṅkara of the Jainas and the doctrine of severe asceticism which he expounded that we find a few references to the Nāyas and some scanty allusions to their political institutions in the sacred books of the Jainas, the Pāli Canon, the commentaries on these texts, and some later epigraphic records. No study of their political institutions has yet been undertaken, but the scattered data collected from these sources do present a fairly cohesive whole; though some points remain vague owing to the dearth of material.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 100 , Issue 2 , April 1968 , pp. 144 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1968

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Save for a brief discussion by Mishra, Yogendra, An early history of Vaiśāli, Delhi, 1962, 112–113Google Scholar. For a general treatment of these peoples see Law, B. C., Some Kṣatriya tribes in ancient India, Calcutta, 1923, 114–122Google Scholar; Tribes in ancient India, Poona, 1943, 243–244.Google Scholar

I am grateful to the University of Hawaii's Office of Research Administration for rendering financial support in conducting initial research for my book on Mahāvāra and Jainism.

2 Kalpa Sūtra of Bhadrabāhu ed. with Jinaprabhamuni's Comm. by H. Jacobi, Leipzig, 1879, sec. 18, n. 3, MSS A, E; secs. 21, 90, 105, 110; Uvāsagadasāo, ed. and tr. Hoernle, A. F. R., with Abhayadeva's Comm., 2 Vols. Calcutta, 1889–1990, I, secs. 66, 69Google Scholar; Uttarādhyayana Sūtram, ed. Vadekar, R. D. and Vaidya, N. V., Poona, 1954, vi, sec. 17; xxxvi, sec. 267.Google Scholar

3 Kalpa Sūtra, secs. 105, 110, n. 4, MSS B, C.

4 ibid., sec. 110.

5 ibid., sec. 104 (twice); Uvāsagadasāo, I, sec. 8.

6 Aṅguttara Nikāya, ed. Morris, R. and Hardy, E., 5 vols., PTS., 1885–1900, III, 74Google Scholar; Majjhima Nikāya, ed. Trenckner, V. and Chalmers, Lord, 3 vols., PTS., 1888–1999, I, 92, 371 ff.Google Scholar; II, 217 ff.; 243 ff.; Mahāvagga, ed. Kashyap, Bhikkhu J., Nālandā, 1956, eh. VI, 31Google Scholar; Jātakas, ed. Fausböll, V., 6 vols., 1877–1997, II, 262 ff.Google Scholar; III, 128; V, 246.

7 Samdehaishaushadhi on secs. 104, 110; cf. Kalpa Sūtra, pp. 110–11.

8 Uvāsagadasāo, II, 4, n. 8; 42, n. 119; 139, n. 304.

9 Mahāvastu, ed. Senart, E., 3 vols., Calcutta, 1834–1939, 1, 253, 257; III, 383.Google Scholar

10 Kalpa Sūtra, secs. 21, 25, 26, 104, 105; Uvāsagadasāo, I, secs. 66, 69, etc.

11 Jinaprabhamuni, Commentary on Kalpa Sūtra, secs. 104, 110, etc.

12 For brevity and clarity we shall refer to them simply as Nāyas.

13 Ṛg-Veda, with Sāyaṇa's Comm., ed. Rajavade, V. K. et al. , 5 vols., Poona, 1933–1951, VII, 55, 5; X, 66, 14; 85, 28, etc.Google Scholar

14 Atharva-Veda, with Sāyaṇa's Comm., ed. Pandit, S. P., 4 vols., Bombay, 1895–1898, XII, 5, 44.Google Scholar

15 Macdonell, A. A. and Keith, A. B., Vedic index, I, 291Google Scholar; cf. T. Burrow, The Sanskrit language, 168.

16 O. Böhtlingk and R. Roth, Sanskrit-Wörterbuch, s.v. jñā, jan.

17 cf. Monier-Williams, M., Sanskrit-English dictionary, 1899 ed., s.v.Google Scholar; T. W. Rhys Davids and W. Stede, Pāli–English dictionary.

18 Kalpa Sūtra, sec. 110; Ācārāṅga Sūtra, ed. Jacobi, H., PTS., 1882, I, 7, 8, 12, I, 8, 1, 9Google Scholar; Uttarādhyayana Sutra, 1, 6, 17: Sūtra Kṛtāṅga with Śīlanka's Comm., ed. Suracandra, V., Bombay, 1917, I, 1, 2, 27; I, 2, 3, 22, etc.Google Scholar

19 Sūtra Kṛtāṅga, I, 2, 3, 22; Kalpa Sūtra, secs. 115–16; Uvāsagadasāo, I, sec. 69.

20 Jacobi, Jaina Sūtras (SBE, XXII), Pt. I, x; Hoernle, Uvāsagadasāo, II, 5 n.

21 Ācā. Sū., II, 15, 4.

22 Hoernle, op. cit., I, sec. 7.

23 Jacobi, Jaina Sūtras, x; Uvāsagadasāo, II, 8, n. 15.

24 Ācārāṅga Sūtra, II, 15, 17; Kalpa Sūtra, sec. 10.

25 Sūtra Kṛtāṅga, I, 2, 3, 22; cf. Uvāsagadasāo, II, 4 n.

26 Jaina Sūtras, xi.

27 Rockhill, W. W., The life of the Buddha …, 1884, 62Google Scholar; cf. Civaravastu (Gilgit MSS II), Pt. 2, ed. Dutt, N., Srinagar, 1942, 6.Google Scholar

28 Uvāsagadasāo, II, 4 n.

29 ibid., I, sec. 7.

30 Kalpa Sūtra, sec. 115; Ācārāṅga Sūtra, II, 15, 22.

31 Uvāsagadasāo, I, sec. 3.

32 ibid., II, 4 n.

33 Sec. 100.

34 II, 5 n.

35 op. cit., II, 5 n.

36 loc. cit.; based on Kalpa Sūtra, sec. 22; Ācārāṅga Sūtra, II, 5, 22; cf. Cambridge History of India, Cambridge, 1935, I, 157.Google Scholar

37 Heart of Jainism, Oxford, 1915, 21–22.Google Scholar

38 Arthaśāstra, ed. Shamasastry, R., Mysore, 1924, 55–57.Google Scholar

39 I, sec. 7.

40 cf. Ācārāṅga Sūtra, II, 15, 17; Kalpa Sūtra, sec. 110.

41 Sūtra Kṛtāṅga, I, 2, 3, 22.

42 CHI, I, 157.

43 Jacobi, Jaina Sūtras, xi.

44 Ed. Jacobi, secs. 21, 26, 30, 47, 59, 65–7, 69, 72, etc.

45 ibid., secs. 21 (twice), 26, 28 (thrice), 30–1, 32 (twice), 33, 47–8, 50, 66, 68–70, 81–2, etc.

46 Sūtra Kṛtāṅga, II, 1, 13.

47 Kalpa Sūtra, sec. 102, refers to abhaḍa, policemen.

48 Commentary on the Kalpa Sūtra, sec. 105.

49 Davids, Rhys, Buddhist India, 1903, 19.Google Scholar

50 Niryāvalikā, ed. and tr. Gopani, A. S. and Chokshi, V. J., Ahmedabad, 1934, 19 ff.Google Scholar

51 But Mishra does not think so (op. cit., 112).

52 Niryāvalikā, pp. 19 ff.; cf. CHI, I, 157.

53 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra, ed. Waldschmidt, E., I–II, Berlin, 1950–1951, pp. 432–442Google Scholar. The Licchavis and the Mallas, keen followers of the Buddha, instituted a festival of lights to honour Mahāvīra's death.

54 Ācārāṅga Sūtra, II, 15, 16.

55 Uvāsagadasāo, II, 6, n. 8.

56 Kalpa Sūtra, secs. 149–69.

57 cf. Hoernle in ERE, I, 265.

58 Hoernle, Uvāsagadasāo, II, 6.

59 Williams, R., “Before Mahāvīra”, JRAS, 1966, 2–6Google Scholar; Mishra, op. cit., 102.

60 Uvāsagadasāo, I, secs. 90, 125, 144, 154, 162, 230, 266, 274, 277; Appx., p. 40.

61 Acārāṅga Sūtra, II, 15, 16.

62 ibid., II, 15, 17.

63 Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, ed. Weber, A., 1849, I, 4, 1, 10 ff.Google Scholar; cf. Oldenberg, H., Buddha, Eng. tr., 1882, 398 ff.Google Scholar

64 Aṅguttara, III, p. 74; Majjhima, I, p. 56.

65 W. W. Rockhill, The life of the Buddha, 79, 96, 104, 259, etc.

66 Mrs. S. Stevenson, Heart of Jainism; Law, B. C., Mahāvīra: his life and teaching, 1937Google Scholar; von Glasenapp, H., Der Jainismus, Berlin, 1925Google Scholar; Schubring, W., Die Lehre der Jainas, Berlin, 1935Google Scholar; Vijaya, Ratna-Prabha, Sramaṇa Bhagāvan Mahāvīra, 4 vols., Ahmedabad, 1948; etc.Google Scholar