Religion and Politics in Kashmir at the Turn of the Tenth Century

Csaba Dezs February 11, 2012

Indologists may consider themselves fortunate that the first truly critical edition and English translation of the R jataragi, together with a rich and highly erudite annotation was prepared by such an outstanding scholar as Sir Aurel Stein. His philological precision and untiring inquisitiveness about every aspect of the mediaeval history of Kashmir were a guarantee that his work has remained an invaluable source for both Sanskritists and Historians even more than a hundred years following its publication. As a historical source, the R jataragi must be treated cautiously. As Stein remarks, Kalhaa new nothing of that critical spirit which to us now appears the indispensable qualification of the historian. 1 We might add that Kalhaa did certainly not intend to write the work of a historiographer: the R jataragi belongs to the genre of Belles-lettres and thus bears the characteristic marks of classical Indian k vya literature. Nevertheless, since fate was not merciful to other sources of the mediaeval history of Kashmir such as epigraphs, Kalhaas mah k vya remains indispensable. There is, however, another important work which deals with the political and religious history of late ninth century Kashmir: the gamaambara, a four-act play by the eminent Naiy yika philosopher, Bhaa Jayanta. Jayantas play transgresses several rules of classical Indian dramaturgy and presents the contemporary affairs of various religious schools and their relation to the politics of the ruling sovereign, king akaravarman (883902). Although several details of Bha--a Jayantas life are lost for us, his personality takes a more distinct shape than that of many classical Indian poets and philosophers. His son, Abhinanda introduces his epitome of the K dambar with a short genealogy, 2 and Jayanta himself also discloses a few fact about his family and his own career in the gamaambara as well as in his magnum opus, the Ny yamajar. From the information we can glean from these sources it appears that Jayanta was born in a wealthy and respected orthodox Brahman family of Gaua (Bengali) origin, which settled in D rv bhis ra, a territory at the frontiers of Kashmir. Jayantas great-grandfather, aktisv min, gained influence on the political life of Kashmir: he became the minister of king Lalit ditya-Mukt p a of the Karko-a dynasty (c. 724761). 3 His grandfather obtained the village of Gauramlaka, which was situated on the territory of D rv bhis ra. RT(S) vol. I, p. 28. K dambarkath sara, pp. 1f. Cf. BHLER 1873, pp. 103ff. Bhler identified this Abhinanda with the author of the R macarita-mah k vya. The latter poet, however, calls himself the son of at nanda (see R macarita, p. 39.) 3 On the chronology of the Karko-a dynasty see RT(S) vol. I, pp. 66ff. Kalhaa does not mention aktisv min, h. He does however mention a minister of Lalit ditya called Mitraarman (R jataragi 4.137f.).
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Jayanta himself soon turned out to be a child genius: at a tender age he composed a commentary to P inis grammar and earned the name (New) Commentator, (Nava-)Vttik ra. 4 Later he made himself master of various stras and gamas, 5 distinguished himself in scholarly debates, 6 and passed on his knowledge to a circle of students. 7 Jayanta seems to have written three works on Ny ya, of which only two are extant: his magnum opus, the Ny yamajar (A Cluster of Flowers of [the] Ny ya[-tree]), and the Ny yakalik (A Bud of [the] Ny ya[-tree]). 8 A Third work called Pallava (possibly Ny yapallava, A Twig of [the] Ny ya[tree]) is quoted in the Sy dv daratn kara; 9 Raghavan assumed that it was a moderately sized metrical gloss on Gautama. 10 From the opening and closing benedictory verses of the Ny yamajar we can presume that Jayanta was a devotee of iva, 11 while the fact that he thinks very highly of the Atharvaveda12 might indicate, as Raghavan pointed out, that Jayanta belonged to the Atharvaveda. 13 Abhinanda admires his fathers poetic talent, 14 and though the style of the Ny yamajar amply confirms Abhinandas admiration, only one k vya work of Jayanta is extant: the gama ambara. Since a verse that is quoted in the play (Act Four, verse 53) as Jayantas wise saying (sktam) is also found in the Ny yamajar (vol. I, p. 640), it seems probable that Jayanta wrote the gama ambara following his major work on Ny ya. 15 The gama ambara provides valuable details about Jayantas political See gama ambara, Act Four, verse 52, and Prologue. Also K dambarkath s ra, verse 11, Ny yamajar, vol. II, p. 718. 5 See K dambarkath s ra, verse 11, gama ambara, Act Four, verse 52, Act Two, ll. 406f. 6 See Ny yamajar, vol. II, p. 718. 7 Jayantas play was staged by his iyapariad. 8 According to Steinkellner (1961, p. 159), [d]ie verffentlichte Ny yakalik ist kein Jayantawerk, sondern eine spte Kompilation von Jayanta-Stzen (note 16: Nach Angaben von V. Raghavan, Madras.) Marui, however, after careful consideration, is inclined to accept Jayantas authorship (see MARUI). 9 See STEINKELLNER 1961, p. 159; gamaambara (ed. pr.), p. v, note 8; MARUI, p. 93. 10 gamaambara (ed. pr.), p. v. 11 The first verse in the Ny yamajar is addressed to ambhu, the second to Bhav n, the third to Gaapati. In the penultimate verse of his work Jayanta says that he composed the Ny yamajar meditating on the feet of [iva] whose diadem is the crescent (candrakal rdhac acaraadhy y), and in the closing verse he again pays reverence to ambhu. 12 Cf. Ny yamajar, vol. I, p. 5. In the section on vedapr m ya Jayanta spares no pains to prove the Veda-status of the Atharvaveda, and he even asserts that it is actually the foremost of all the four Vedas (Ny yamajar, vol. II, p. 626: atharvaveda eva prathama). 13 gamaambara (ed. pr.), p. iii. 14 K dambarkath s ra, verse 10, quoted above. 15 Actually there are many more parallel passages in the two texts (without the indication of the source in the play).
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career. We learn that he was the adviser (am tya) of king akaravarman (883902), and played a great part in banishing the heterodox sect of the BlackBlankets from Kashmir. The nl mbaras and their sad fate are also mentioned in the Ny yamajar. In a verse in the Ny yamajar Jayanta gives curious details about the circumstances among which he wrote his magnum opus: 16

I had been transferred by the king to this forest, a wordless place of confinement. I have spent the years here with the pastime of writing a book. Cakradhara, the commentator of the Ny yamajar supplements this rather enigmatic verse with the following information: 17

The report runs that he spent a long time by His Majesty king akaravarmans order in the forest, somewhere in Khasa-land in Kashmir. Since Jayantas great-grandfather, aktisv min was a minister of the Kashmirian king Mukt p a-Lalit ditya, who reigned between c. 724761, 18 it seems probable that Jayanta was in his fifties-sixties at the end of the ninth century. 19 Kalhaa does not give a favourable account of the king whom Jayanta served as adviser. After his successful campaign against Grjara through the kingdom of D rv bhis ra, akaravarman came more and more under the sway of avarice and became master in exploiting his people.20 Since his campaigns had probably emptied the treasury, the king introduced fines, taxes, systematic forced labour, and established two new revenue offices. 21 He also deprived the temples from the profits they had from the sale of various articles of worship, simply plundered, as Kalhaa puts it, sixty-four temples through special supervising officers, 22 resumed under direct state management villages held as agrah ras by the temples, and manipulating the weight in the scales he cheated the temple-corporations (parads), reducing the allotment assigned as compensation for the villages. 23 The villages gradually sank into poverty under the fiscal oppression, while clerks,

16 17

Ny yamajar, vol. II, p. 199. Granthibhaga, p. 167. 18 On the chronology of the K rko-a dynasty see RT(S) vol. I, pp. 66ff. 19 Cf. HACKER 1951, pp. 110ff. 20 praj p aapa ita, R jataragi 5.165. 21 R jataragi 5.167ff. 22 R jataragi 5.168169. 23 R jataragi 5.170170, see also Steins notes in RT(S), vol. I, pp. 208f.

secretaries, and tax-collectors (k yasthas, diviras) ruled. 24 Unlike his father Avantivarman, who showered honours and fortunes on scholars and poets, 25 akaravarman was not a liberal patron of arts: as Kalhaa says, it was due to him that the learned were not respected. 26 The king was so afraid of wastingspending money that he turned his back on the worthy, and as a result such eminent poets as Bhalla-a had to live in penury, 27 while the low-born Lava-a, who was made treasurer (gajavara), thrived. 28 akaravarman himself, giving proof of his boorishness, refused to speak Sanskrit, and used apabhraa instead, a language fit for drunkards in Kalhaas esteem. 29 Jayanta gives a more favourable account of king akaravarman in his gama ambara. He is said to be supremely devoted to iva, and merciful to all religious schools.30 The aiva Abbot figuring in the play also holds a high opinion of the king: The merits of this king are celebrated all over the world, and his attention is solely devoted to social and religious order; 31 As long as His Majesty akaravarman righteously rules the country which has fallen to him, the kingdom belongs to the virtuous alone, but he supports it. 32 In the fourth act the hero of the play, looking at the assembly of scholars, exclaims as follows: How wonderful! Now the kingdom looks exactly like Brahm s heaventhe kingdom of His Majesty Yaovarmadeva 33 of holy fame, whose heart is with the Destroyer of the Cities [of the demons, i.e. iva], an ocean of enviable virtues, who adorns his ear by listening to the valuable [advices] of the learned, and fulfils the wishes of every honest man. 34 The two s dhakas in the play, however, who represent a more antisocial form of aivism, are not satisfied either with the king, 35 or with the present state of the kingdom, because in every region, every single town, every village, everywhere the sound of Veda-recitation grates on the ear, the smell of ghee stings the nose, the smoke of sacrifice brings tears to the eyes. 36 They are particularly upset because the king, shoulder to shoulder with his rough (viama) adviser, Jayanta, has nabbed the mendicant Nl mbaras, beat them to jelly, and expelled them from the kingdom, on the grounds that they were outside Vedic religion. And if any other mendicant is caught, who is outside Vedic religion, hell be beaten up, killed, thrown in jail, [or] slain. 37 And indeed a herald comes and proclaims the order of the king: 38
24 25

R jataragi 5.175ff. R jataragi 5.33f. Kalhaa mentions Mukt kaa, ivasv min (the author of the Kapphin bhyudaya), nandavardhana, and Ratn kara (who composed the Haravijaya) as members of Avantivarmans sabh . 26 R jataragi 5.179: nimitta sarvavidy n m an dare. 27 R jataragi 5.204. 28 R jataragi 5.177, 205. 29 R jataragi 5.206. 30 gama ambara, Act Three, ll. 159f. 31 Ibid. verse 8a. 32 Ibid. ll. 219f. 33 akaravarman used the same name on his Karkoa-style coins (see RAY). 34 gama ambara, Act Four, ll. 77ff. 35 gama ambara, Act Three, l. 34: d lue khu l e akalavamme. 36 Ibid. ll. 81ff. 37 Ibid. ll. 34ff.

Those virtuous people who have fallen into the beginningless stream of the world and belong to various religionsthey should remain as they are, performing those practices which are prescribed by their own religious discipline. Those depraved ones, however, who devastate the established social and religious orderif they dont leave immediately, the king will strike them like thieves.Those virtuous people who have fallen into the beginningless stream of the world and belong to various religions they should remain as they are, performing practices prescribed by their own religious discipline. Those criminal false ascetics, however, who devastate the established social and religious orderif they dont leave immediately, the king will strike them like thieves. On the basis of the information gathered from Jayantas play and the R jataragi we can sketch the portrait of a king who kept a fast hold on his country. akaravarman appears to have exercised tight central control over both fiscal and religious matters in Kashmir, and preferred his subjects to be dutiful and conformist. He certainly disliked the squandering of money, and a nobleman who organized lavish dinners for mendicants instead of offering his wealth and services to the king could surely expect the confiscation of his property. 39 akaravarmans policy in religious matters was revived by Yaaskara (939 948), who restored order in Kashmir after the chaotic reigns of various debauched kings following the death of akaravarman. Yaaskara, himself a Brahman brahmin and elected as king by an assembly of Brahmans brahmins, was a champion of orthodoxy, and, similarly to akaravarman, he was not favourably disposed towards anti-dharmic religious practices. Jayantas views in religious matters were as conservative as those of akaravarman. In his opinion the primary task of Ny ya is to protect the authority of the Veda (vedapr m yarak ). 40 However, as Dr. Kataoka pointed out, 41 this prayojana does not tally with the statements of older Naiy yikas, who proclaim that Ny ya provides us with the knowledge of the real nature of the objects of cognition (prameyatattvaj na, and above all tmaj na), which results in liberation (apavarga), independently of the Veda. Beside fulfilling this particular purpose (prayojana), Ny ya also contributes to the other sciences, furnishing them with a valid method of argumentation. From Kauilyas description it appears that the category of investigative science ( nvkik) includes several schools of learning (S khya, Yoga, and Lok yata) which are not necessarily rooted in Vedic orthodoxy. For V tsy yana, Ny ya fulfills the role of nvkik inasmuch as it establishes and employs the method of logical inquiry; the results of this inquiry, however, must be in conformity with the information received from sense perception and scripture. 42 Orthodox writers on dharma stra also expressed the view that
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gama ambara, Act Three, verse 1. Cf. gama ambara, Act Two, ll. 315ff. 40 Cf. Ny yamajar, vol. I, p. 7, 11. 41 KATAOKA, pp. 5ff. 42 Ny yabh ya, p. 3.

not every kind of reasoning is commendable. According to Jayanta, Ny ya is not only in conformity with scripture but it is also the main supporting-pillar of all sciences, because it is the means of the protection of the Vedas authority. 43 It is Akap das Ny ya which is referred to as tarka and ny yavistara in the list of the fourteen sciences, 44 and not any other doctrine:45

For, what sort of skill do the mendicant S khyas and Jains, to begin with, have in teaching reasoning? To what extent is the authority of the Veda protected by their tarka? Thus it does not qualify to take it into account here. As for the Buddhists, although they walk with their head high in the air because of their dexterity in delving deep into the ways of reasoning, nevertheless, since they oppose the Veda, how could their tarkabecause their tarka is opposed to the Veda, how could it be mentioned among the sciences headed by the Veda? And we shall also demonstrate at every step what is the Buddhists skill in reasoning is like. As for the wretched C rv kas, they must simply be discarded. What sort of scope is there to reckonfor countinghere with their trifling tarka among [the fourteen sciences]? The Vaieikas, on the other hand, just follow us [Naiy yikas]. Thus, even if this group of six tarkas is wellknown among the people, it is this stra [of Akap da] alone which is referred to with the words tarka and ny yavistara. Jayantas rigour with which he separates Veda-protecting Ny ya from heterodox tarkas will appear even more marked in the light of the works of some earlier Naiy yikas. Bh vivikta, who appears to have written a commentary on the Ny yabh ya probably in the period between Dign ga and Dharmakrti, 46 was, according to Cakradhara, one of the old C rv kas (cirantanac rv k ) 47 mentioned by Jayanta in his Ny yamajar. 48 Similarly Aviddhakara, who also wrote a Bh yak before the time of Dharmakrti, seems to have composed a C rv ka Tattvak as well. 49 Jayanta, far from making excursions to the field of heterodox tarkas, takes a strong line against depraved logicians (duat rkik ) and their destructive speculations: 50 According to Jayanta, Mm s , the science which could be regarded as the
43 44

Ny yamajar, vol. I, p. 7. Ny yamajar, vol. I, p. 8, quoting Y javalkya-smti 1.3 and another verse of unknown source. As Kataoka pointed out (KATAOKA, pp. 17ff.), this fourteen-fold list enables Jayanta to limit the scope of all sciences to the transcendental (ada), and to place the four Vedas (and not tray) headed by Atharvaveda on the top of the hierarchy of vidy s. 45 Ny yamajar, vol. I, pp. 8f. 46 Cf. STEINKELLNER 1961, p. 153; WEZLER 1975, p. 143. 47 Granthibhaga, p. 197. 48 Ny yamajar, vol. II, p. 249. 49 Cf. STEINKELLNER 1961, pp. 153ff. 50 Ny yamajar, vol. I, p. 7.

primary Veda-protector number one, has a different, more important task: the examination of the meaning of Vedic texts (arthavic ra). 51 On the other hand, Mm sakas are rambling on an illusive path on which progress is blocked by the multitude of thorns of faulty speculation, 52 and thus their theories of svatapr m ya (all means of cognition are valid by themselves) and apaurueyatva (the Veda has no author) theories is are inadequate to protect the Veda. It is only the Ny ya theory of ptoktatva (verbal testimony is valid because it has been pronounced by a reliable person, who is God himself in the case of the Veda) that is able to establish and defend the authority of the Veda, 53 which is, in Jayantas view, Ny yas principal mission. Considering all this it may seem surprising that the leading character of Jayantas play, the crusader of Vedic orthodoxy, is a Mm saka. The young and dynamic Sakaraa has just finished his Vedic studies (and so he has become a graduate, sn taka). His ardour knows no bounds: he is eager to find someone who dares to be an enemy of the Veda (vedadvi), in order to stamp him flat with the ram of reasoning. 54 In the first act Sakaraa systematically refutes in front of distinguished and unbiased umpires 55 the bhikus arguments about Universal Momentariness (kaikatva) and Consciousness as the Only Reality (vij nav da). Thus he scores his first victory against the depraved logicians who try to undermine Vedic order, 56 and summons the Buddhists to stop deceiving themselves and others with the promise of a better afterlife for those who follow the Buddhas doctrine. In the second act the Mm saka lets another heterodox teacher, a Jain monk, slip, not considering him a significant threat to the established socio-religious order. 57 The debauched behaviour of the Black-Blankets, however, requires instant measures, just as as do the shady practices of the aiva adepts. Problems start to emerge for our hero in the third act of the play, when he has to refine the circle of those sects whose presence in the kingdom is unwanted. In fact, the Mm saka is ready to form an alliance with the Saiddh ntika aiva professor against the irreligious C rv kas, represented by the arrogant Vddh mbhi who outlines a clear program: I am going to do away with God, set aside transmigration, demolish the validity of the Vedas, and thereby turn this king back from this wrong path and establish him on the right track, so that he, Ny yamajar, vol. I, p. 10. Ny yamajar, ibid. Cf. KATAOKA, pp. 26ff. 53 Cf. Ny yamajar, vol. I, p. 10, pp. 430ff, KATAOKA, pp. 27ff. 54 gama ambara, Act One, verse 11. 55 One of them is called Vivarpa, whose name might echo that of a commentator of the Ny yabh ya (cf. STEINKELLNER 1961, p. 158; WEZLER 1975, pp. 139ff.) 56 The bhiku whom the Mm saka defeats is called Dharmottara, just as one of Dharmakrtis most prominent followers, who, according to the R jataragi (4.498), settled in Kashmir. His arguments are similar to those of Dharmakrti on the one hand, and to the views of vij nav da as presented by Kum rila. The Mm saka in his refutation (just as Jayanta in the Ny yamajar) draws upon Kum rilas lokav rtika. 57 As Jayanta reports, king akaravarman also gave quarter to the Jains (Ny yamajar, vol. 649). On the other hand, the Jain theory of anek ntav da is not far removed from certain ideas expounded by Kum rila (cf. UNO).
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concentrating on wealth and polity, can enjoy his kingship for a long time. I am going to take this opportunity to do away with God, set aside the world-to-come, demolish the validity of the Vedas, and thereby turn this king back from this wrong path and establish him on the right track, so that he, concentrating on worldly prosperity, can enjoy his kingship for a long time. 58 Now the question may arise whether the C rv kas or C rv ka ideas had a real influence on the Kashmirian monarch. According to Kalhaas account, akaravarman was a king who concentrated on artha above all, and he had no scruples about fleecing the temples in order to fill the treasury. On the other hand, as Jayanta shows in the Ny yamajar, Lok yata was not a longforgotten philosophy in the ninth century. Apart from such old C rv kas (cirantanac rv k ) as Bh vivikta, 59 Jayanta also had to deal with welleducated C rv kas (suikitac rv k ), such innovators as Udbhaa, 60 whom he simply calls the shrewd C rv ka (c rv kadhrta). 61 It is certainly tempting to identify this Udbhaa with the sabh pati of king Jay pa (R jataragi, 4.495, 7.482, 8.2227) and / or with the lak rika author of the K vy lak ras rasagraha. The former would also indicate that a C rv ka could occupy an influential post in the royal court at the end of the eighth century. Whatever may be the truth about the identity of these Udbhaas, the fact that Jayanta took the trouble to refute the ideas of the C rv ka Udbhaa on several pages of the Ny yamajar shows that this tradition was very much alive in his time, and a king like akaravarman may well have been responsive to its anti-religionist ideas. The vikambhaka preceding the final act makes it clear that Sakaraa has lost the trust of Vedic Brahmans: 62

aivas, P upatas, P car trikas, S khyas, Buddhists, Sky-Clad Jains and other [heretics]: all of them have remained as they were. Shame on the useless learning of the Graduate! The aboveThis lamentation of the tvij makes a sharp contrast to the entrance verse of the Mm saka in the first act, when in which he took an oath to humiliate all the enemies of the Veda, and thereby to make his learning fruitful. But, my friend, explains the (perhaps older and more experienced) up dhy ya to the tvij, he has gama ambara, Act Three, ll. 232ff. As Raghavan suggested, Vddh mbhi is likely to be an echo of the ancient school of Artha stra, cited by Kauilya as the mbhyas (gamaambara (ed. pr.), pp. xxiv f.). According to these mbhyas, the prince should be tempted, in order to prove him, with hunting, gambling, alcohol, women, and suggesting him to seize power from his father. Kauilya rejects this theory (Artha stra, 1.13). 59 Cf. Ny yamajar, vol. II, p. 349, Granthibhaga, p. 197. 60 Cf. Ny yamajar, vol. I, pp. 94, 326, 451; vol. II, pp. 8, 348, 687; Granthibhaga, pp. 19, 197, 198. 61 Ny yamajar, vol. I, p. 168; Granthibhaga, p. 43. 62 gama ambara, Act Four, ll. 5ff.
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become the kings man by now. And the king is supremely devoted to iva, so Sakaraa has to be completely focussed on propitiating Him. For in a monarchs vicinity [his] men keep repeating his words, but, eager to increase their own influence, they do not distinguish between good or bad, like echoes. 63 Sakaraa is indeed in a great dilemma indeed: either he should enter into a debate and prove the falsity of the teachings of the Bh gavatas, an gama supported by the queen and another member of the court, just as he did in the case of the n stikas, or he should defend them, in which case he would completely lose his face before the Vaidikas. That the Bh gavatas were indeed striving to achieve Vedic status for their gama in Jayantas time is also indicated by Cakradharas following remark: 64 Bhagavat Pukar ka, the principal mendicant, who wrote a commentary to the stras of Bhagavat B dar yaa, accepted the view that the Pacar tra and other [ gamas] are based of the Veda. Sakaraa cannot resolve the tension between his devotion to Viu and his duty to reject all non-Vedic scriptures as a Mm saka. It is the great naiy yika scholar, Dhairyar i, who smoothes all differences away as the arbitrator appointed by the court in the debate between Vaiavas and Vaidikas. Sakaraas only task is to give tacit support, which he happily accepts. Dhairyar is mission is not to enter into a controversy or to defeat anybody in a debate; on the contrary, he comes to pour oil on troubled waters. Accordingly he delivers a long lecture instead of discussing things, and his overwhelming authority gives even more emphasis to his words. He proves to be a real sarv gamapr m yav din (one who holds the validity of all religious scriptures), and his argumentation mirrors exactly the views presented by Jayanta in his Ny yamajar. 65 In his magnum opus Bhaa Jayanta, the orthodox Brahman and naiy yika philosopher, concludes the first part of his comments on the validity of scriptures with the following words: Any religion which is outside the Veda is only cheating nothing but deception. 66 The circle of acceptable religions, however, is wider for Jayanta than for a Mm saka such as Kum rila, since he also includes the Pacar tra and the aiva gamas, on the grounds that, firstly, their author, just as the author of the Veda, is a reliable person, namely God, and, secondly, they are not incompatible with the Veda. 67 On the other hand the Buddhists and the so called liberators from transmigration sas ramocakas, are still considered as vedab hya and therefore not authoritative. At this point Jayantas exposition about the validity of scriptures takes a surprising turn: Others have accepted the validity of all scriptures because cognition without supersession [by a subsequent cognition] or uncertainty has arisen from all of them. 68 He does not tell us explicitly who hold this peculiar view, nor if he supports or rejects sarv gamapr m ya. Still it is significant that he presents it as the concluding paka in the context of the validity of religions, and he takes pains to enumerate arguments supporting this position. One has the impression that Jayanta must have suffered real pain, especially when he tries to find excuses even for Buddhism. He manages to show that the doctrine of nair tmya serves only to induce the
63 64

gama ambara, Act Four, ll. 11ff. Granthibhaga, p. 112. 65 Ny yamajar, vol. I, pp. 640ff. 66 Ny yamajar, vol. I, p. 639. 67 Ny yamajar, vol. I, p. 637. 68 Ibid. p. 640.

relaxation of the Self, 69 and that the Knowledge that Buddhists strive after is very similar to the Self because of its freedom and independence.70 He also demonstrates that the Buddha is just as omniscient as Kapila and the other sages, and finally that Buddhists do not really mean it when they refute the caste-system, but they just crave praise on account of the excellence of their compassion disposed to help everybodyas for the refutation of the doctrine of caste in Buddhist scriptures, its purpose is [only] to laud the high degree of [the Buddhas] compassion that seeks to help all [creatures], and it should not be taken literally. 71 If one holds the view that God is the author of all valid scriptures, says Jayanta, then we may argue that only the body of the Buddha was the son of uddhodana, his soul was Lord Viu personally. 72 If one says that all valid gamas must be based on the Veda, then assiduous experts are ready to find some Vedic grounds even for wearing red robes, or for smearing oneself with ashes and carrying a skull. 73 The key to Jayantas turnaround is given at the end of the section dealing with gamapr m ya in the Ny yamajar (pp. 648649). First Jayanta enumerates those criteria on the basis of which an gama can be regarded as valid: it must have obtained celebrity with which nobody finds fault, many learned people should accept it, it should not appear to be unprecedented, its raison dtre must not be greed, etc., and finally it should not cause abhorrence among people. 74 Then Jayanta gives an example how these liberal principles can be put into practice: king akaravarman suppressed the practice of the Black-Blankets, but he spared for instance the Jains. 75 Thus the criterion of validity is not so much the veracity of propositions in a given scripture, but rather the degree of its recognition and its inherent possibilities of overthrowing social order. 76 This was probably fitting in the broader Religionspolitik of the king, which, as Wezler pointed out, could motivate Jayantas whole exposition of the sarv gamapr m ya-theory in his Ny yamajar. 77 And the right person who can to decide in these such delicate issues like as which conduct is wicked enough to be suppressed, and what are the criteria of this wickedness, is the king himself, and those people in his service who put his orders into effect. In the gamaambara, the Mm sakas position in these questions, just as his career and livelihood as a married householder and the kings man, depends on the will of his superiors, as Bhaa Jayanta, who served king akaravarman as his adviser, knew very well.

Works Consulted

69 70

gamaambara

(ed.

pr.)

gamaambara,

otherwise

called

Ibid. p. 641. Ibid. 71 Ibid. p. 643. 72 Ibid. p. 644. 73 Ibid. p. 647. 74 Ibid. p. 648. 75 Ny yamajar, vol. I, p. 649, quoted above. 76 On the ground of sarv gamapr m ya only anti-social sects and Lok yata are rejected, the latter because its statements are based merely on prvapaka statements in Vedic texts (cf. Ny yamajar, vol. I, pp. 647f). 77 See WEZLER 1976, p. 340.

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