Tribes in Ancient India c52: Chapter XLVIII. The Jñātṛkas
Tribes in Ancient India c52
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Chapter XLVIII. The Jñātṛkas
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The Jñātṛkas (also known as the Nātha or Nāya clan) gave India one of its greatest religious reformers, Mahāvīra, the last Tīrthaṅkara of the Jains, and this is their sole claim to fame among ancient Indian tribes.
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The Jñātṛkas, or Kṣatriyas of the Jñātri (or Nāya) clan, used to dwell in Vaiśālī (Basāṛh), Kuṇḍagrāma and its suburb Koḷāga, and Vāṇijyagrāma.¹ The *Cambridge History of India*² states that Kuṇḍagrāma was a suburb just outside Vaiśālī, probably surviving in the modern village of Basukuṇḍ. Mrs. Sinclair Stevenson (*Heart of Jainism*, pp. 21-2) says that some 2,000 years ago, in Basāṛh, the same divisions existed as would be found today, and there, in fact, the priestly (Brāhmaṇa), warrior (Kṣatriya) and commercial (Vāṇiyā or Vāṇijyā) communities lived so separately that their quarters were sometimes spoken of as though they had been distinct villages, as Vaiśālī, Kuṇḍagrāma and Vāṇijyagrāma. Strangely enough, she adds, it was not in their own but in the Kṣatriya ward that Mahāvīra was to be the great hero of the commercial class. We are not prepared to accept Mrs. Stevenson’s statement that Vaiśālī was exclusively a Brahmin settlement, in the absence of positive evidence.
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¹ *Uvāsagadasāo* (Hoernle), Vol. II, p. 4, f.n.
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² Vol. I, p. 157.
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The Jain writers give an idealised picture of the Jñātṛkas, telling us that they were afraid of sin, abstained from wicked deeds, did no mischief to any being, and therefore did not partake of meat.³ Dr. Hoernle says⁴: ‘Outside their settlement at Koḷāga, the Jñātṛkas possessed a religious establishment (or Cheïya) which bore the name Duïpalāsa. Like most Cheïyas,⁵ it consisted of a park enclosing a shrine, hence in the *Vipāka Sūtra* it is called the Duïpalāsa Park (Ujjāna)’. The Nāya clan seems to have supported a body of monks who followed Pārśvanātha, an ascetic, who lived some 250 years before Mahāvīra.⁶ It is stated in the *Uvāsagadasāo* that Mahāvīra’s parents (and with them probably the whole clan of Nāya Kṣatriyas) are said to have been followers of the tenets of Pārśvanātha. When Mahāvīra, who was taken to be the successor of Pārśvanātha, appeared, the members of his clan became his devoted followers.
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³ *Jaina Sūtras*, Pt. II, S.B.E., Vol. XLV, p. 416.
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⁴ *Uvāsagadasāo*, Vol. II, pp. 4 and 5, f.n.
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⁵ = Skt. *Chaitya*, shrine.
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⁶ Mrs. Stevenson, *Heart of Jainism*, p. 31.
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Dr. Hoernle says that Vaiśālī, one of the settlements of the Jñātṛkas, was an oligarchic republic, the government of which was vested in a senate composed of the heads of the resident Kṣatriya clans and presided over by an officer who had the title of king and was assisted by a Viceroy and a Commander-in-chief.¹ Mrs. S. Stevenson says that the government of Vaiśālī seems to have resembled that of a Greek State.²
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¹ *Uvāsagadasāo*, Ed. Hoernle, Vol. II, p. 6.
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² *Heart of Jainism*, p. 22.
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In the early sixth century B.C., the chief of the Kṣatriya Nātha clan was Siddhārtha who married Triśalā, sister of Ceṭaka, the most eminent among the Licchavi princes. Siddhārtha and Triśalā were the parents of Mahāvīra, who lived from approximately 570-500 B.C. (See B. C. Law, *Mahāvīra: His Life and Teachings*, p. 53). Of Siddhārtha Dr. Hoernle says: ‘Though, as may be expected, the Sacred Books of the Jains speak of him in exaggerated terms, they do not, I believe, ever designate him as “the king of Kuṇḍapura or Kuṇḍagāma”; on the contrary, he is, as a rule, only called the Khattiya Siddhattha (Siddhatthe Khattiye) and only exceptionally he is referred to simply as King Siddhattha. This is perfectly consistent with his position as the chief of the Kshatriyas of Kollāga. Accordingly, Mahāvīra himself was born in Kollāga and naturally when he assumed the monk’s vocation, he retired to the Cheïya of his own clan, called Duïpalāsa and situated in the neighbourhood of his native place, Kollāga.’³ Mahāvīra, on renouncing the world, probably first joined Pārśva’s sect of which, however, he soon became a reformer and chief himself.⁴
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³ *Uvāsagadasāo*, Vol. II, pp. 5-6.
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⁴ *Ibid.*, p. 6.
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A detailed sketch of the life and work of Mahāvīra would fill a volume and is beyond the scope of the present treatise.⁵ We may, however, mention the fact that it was Mahāvīra who brought the Jñātṛkas into intimate touch with the neighbouring communities of eastern India and developed a religion which is still professed by millions of Indians. Another celebrity of the Jñātṛka clan was Ānanda, a staunch follower of Mahāvīra. The story of Ānanda and his wife Śivanandā is related in the *Uvāsagadasāo*.⁶
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⁵ For an account of Mahāvīra, see B. C. Law: *Mahāvīra: His Life and Teachings*.
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⁶ Vol. II, tr. pp. 7-9.
Linked texts (2)
- Uvāsagadasāo — Sudharman, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit
- Vivāgasuya — Sudharman, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit