The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c18.19

c18.19

The Jaina literature of this period, though extensive and magnificent, is from the administrative view-point only of secondary importance. It tells us little that is absolutely new but it confirms, in a most striking manner, the conclusions to which other evidence leads. By far the most important Jaina work of this period is the Ādi Purāṇa, composed by Jinasenācārya and, after his death, continued by Guṇabhadrācārya, in the 8th and 9th centuries A.D.² It embodies a good deal of older tradition. Its conception of government is paternal and patriarchal.¹ When it seeks to demolish the claims of ordinary Brāhmaṇas and in their place to invest Jaina Brāhmaṇas with all the privileges of reverence, stipends, exemption from taxes and severe punishments, it shows that the Brāhmaṇas did really enjoy some privileges. Jaina kings should not accept any blessings from the ordinary Brāhmaṇas.²