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54. Agni Vaiśvānara 07 Jan 18b.pdf (629.05 kB)

Agni Vaiśvānara

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journal contribution
posted on 2018-01-07, 08:04 authored by TENSING CARLOS RODRIGUESTENSING CARLOS RODRIGUES

For probably it was this aridity that drove the brāmhaṇa eastwards from their home in the north-western corner of the sub-continent, creating Āryavarta extending ‘as far as the eastern and the western oceans’, as Manu would later boast. [Bühler, 1886 : The Laws of Manu, Chapter II, 33] Drought features prominently in Yuga Purāṇa, as a divine retribution for the ‘evil world-order’ that set in at the end of the Dvāpara Yuga. Mahābhārata speaks of a ‘bahuvarshiki’ (many years) famine during which even animals and trees were destroyed, ‘the capital looked like a city of ghosts’ and unable to bear their hunger, men began to devour each other. [Sahi, 1970 : Famine Of The Gangetic Valley Mentioned In Yuga Purana, Proceedings Of The Indian History Congress, Vol. 32, 164] We may not lay much importance by the mention in Mahābhārataas that may be just a repetition of the famine account in Yuga Purāṇa.

But we find references to famine in Buddhist and Jaina texts as well. Mahāvagga makes a mention of ‘food scarcity’ at two instances : once when the famine prevailed (6.19.2) and once when the famine was over (6.32.2); the context is Buddha’s instructions regarding food. [Horner, 1962 : The Book Of The Discipline - Vol. 4 - Mahāvagga, 292,326] Cullavagga too makes a mention of shortage of food at 6.21.1. [Horner, 1963 : The Book Of The Discipline - Vol. 5- Cullavagga, 246] The passages also mention some names of places which were affected by the famine : Rājagaha (Rājgir), Sāvatthī (Śrāvastī) andVesāli (Vaiśālī). All the three are in modern Bihar, in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain. As for the Jaina sources, we have already seen the story of Bhadrabahu in Rājāvali Kathē and in the inscriptions at Śravaṇabæḷagôḷa.

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