Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c7.s6.t2.2

c7.s6.t2.2

¹⁴ Science of larceny is ascribed to various authors headed by Skanda, Kanakasakti, Bhāskarānandī and Yogācārya. Thieves were also called Skandaputra. Compare Grecian Mercury and St Nicholas of England. This God was the patron deity of thieves. Radha Govind Basaka, I H Q, V, 1929 pp 312 ff, also see *Kathāsaritsāgara* (Vol II, pp 183 4), note on ‘Stealing’. Mūladeva is considered as the arch-thief of Hindu fiction, whom Bloomfield identifies with Karnisuta, Goniputraka, Gonikāputra or Gonikasuta. He is supposed to have written a famous manual of thieving entitled *Steyashāstrapravartaka* or *Steyavithrapravartaka*. Mūladeva is also mentioned in the com on the *Dīgha* (I, 89), also see Dr A N Upadhye’s *Dhūrtākhyāna*, A critical Study, p 23 and note.