Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c8.s1.19

c8.s1.19

As to this, Mr. Thomas says:² “That Chandra Gupta was a member of the Jaina community is taken by their writers as a matter of course and treated as a known fact, which needed neither argument nor demonstration. . . . The testimony of Megasthenes would likewise seem to imply that Chandra Gupta submitted to the devotional teaching of the Sermanas as opposed to the doctrines of the Brāhmans.” In treating of the Hindu religious sects, Professor Wilson says:¹ “It has been supposed that we have notices of the Jaina sect as far back as the period at which Megasthenes was sent ambassador to Sandracoptus, and that these notices are recorded by Strabo and Arrian.” Colebrooke, who examined the passages referred to, says:² “The followers of Buddha are clearly distinguished from the Brachmanes and Sarmanes. The latter, called Germanes by Strabo and Samanæans by Porphyrius, are the ascetics of a different religion, and may have belonged to the sect of Jina or to another.” Megasthenes, in his *Indika*, says³ of the Sarmanes who live in the woods: “They communicate with the kings, who consult them by messengers regarding the causes of things, and who through them worship and supplicate the deity.” The story of Chandra Gupta's accession to the throne of the Nandas is dramatised in the Sanskrit play named *Mudrā Rākshasa*, by Viśākhadatta, which has been translated by Professor Wilson.⁴ In this we see that Jains held a prominent position at the time, and Chānakya—also called Vishnugupta and Kauṭilya—who was the prime agent in the revolution, employs a Jain as one of his chief emissaries.