Jaina Heritage in Gujarat

Author(s): Francoise Mallison
Publisher: Z_Nirgrantha_1_022701.pdf and Nirgrantha_2_022702.pdf and Nirgrantha_3_022703.pdf
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/269030/1

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THE << TRUE VAISNAVA >> : A JAINA HERITAGE IN GUJARAT
Françoise Mallison
One of the best-known pada-s (devotional lyrics) in Gujarati begins with the words "Vaisnavajana to tene kahīye, je..." "He alone can be called a true Vaisnava who..". The pada is attributed to Narasimha Mahetā, the foremost Vaisnava bhakta poet of Gujarat (15th c.)'. It has become famous all over India thanks to Mahatma Gandhi whose favourite prayer it was. It is a simple description of what makes a Vaisnava and it reads thus :
Vaişnavajana to tene kahiye,
je pida parãi jāne re; paradukhe upakāra kare,
ne mana abhimana na ane re. 1 Sakala lokamām sahune vande,
nindā na kare keni re, vāca-kācha-mana niscala räkhe,
dhana dhana janani teni re. 2 Samadrsti ne trsnätyāgi,
parastri jene māta re; jihvä thaki asatya na bole,
paradhana na jhāle hātha re. 3 Mohamayā lepe nahi tene,
drdha vairāgya tenā manamām re; rāmanāma śum tāļi lagi,
sakala tīrtha tenā tanaman re. 4 Vanalobhi ne kapatarahita che,
kāmakrodha jene māryā re; bhane Narasainyo tenum darasana karatām,
kula ekotera tāryām re. 5 He alone can be called a true Vaisnava
who does not ignore the sufferings of others, who helps them in their miseries
and has no conceit. 1 He greets everyone everywhere,
slanders none, he is steady in speech, deeds and mind :
blessed indeed is his mother. 2

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Nirgrantha
Equally he looks on all, he is without desire, another man's wife is a mother to him; untruth he does not utter nor grab the wealth of others. 3 Delusion does not touch him, nor deceit; detachment is firm in his mind; he is absorbed in the meditation of the name of Räma, he embodies all holy places. 4 Free from greed, and guileless, he has defeated passion and anger. Narasaimyo says : The sight of such a man
saves one hundred and one generationss. 5 The Definition of the Vaişnava Etymologically speaking, the meaning of Vaisnava is clear "the one who belongs to Vişnu, a follower of Visnuism”. It appears, however, from the text that a Vaišnava is one who is able to practise a certain amount of virtues, such as compassion, humility, tolerance, control of passions, as well as to avoid a certain number of vices, such as lying, stealing, committing adultery, falsehood, lewdness, or anger. The devotion to Visnu doesn't figure among the essential components of his behaviour. At the most, the stanza 4 tells the reader that "the Vaisnava remains absorbed in the meditation of the name of Rāma" (Rāmanāma sum tālī lāgo, yet it is obviously not Rāma or Rāmacandra, the seventh avatara of Visnu who is meant but the Rāma of the Santa tradition conceived as the name of the all-pervading God who should be apprehended within, and is equivalent to the Upanişadic Atmarama. No denominational affiliation, no sectarian adhesion seem to be implied by this definition of the Vaisnava, and besides, if devotees of siva do exist, it has never seemed necessary to define the qualities of the perfect Saivite bhakta ! What is proposed here is merely an ideal of conduct which, in accordance with the puritanic Santa nirguni tradition, is called Vaisnava'. This definition is confirmed by the fate of the pada "Vaisnavajana" in Gujarat as well as by the position of its presumed author towards Vişnuism in Gujarat and within the framework of the religious substratum of the area. Who was the author of Vaisnavajana ? Due probably to the non-sectarian ideal expressed in "Vaisnavajana to...", the authorship of Narasimha Mahetā was questioned several times. Dalapatarāma (1820-1898) who inaugurated the modern period of Gujarati letters, a reformist writer and a member of the Svāmi-nārāyani sect was said to have written the pada under the name of Narasimha Maheta'. It has even been considered to have been written by a Christian missionary, again probably due to the ideal of conduct it advocated. These attributions, as well as the one to Dayārārna (1777-1852, the last author of the

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medieval period)", had to be dropped after manuscripts anterior to 1780 were discovered, bearing the chāpa (signature) of Narasimha Mahetā"2. Of more interest are two partially similar versions found in manuscripts under the names of Vacho and Nākara. Vācho's text, discovered by M. B. Vyas 13, has 8 stanzas in a sequence differring from the one adopted in the pada going under the name of Narasimha Mahetă; but this frequently happens in the case of orally transmitted lyrics in which the number of antară (stanzas) between two teka (refrains) and their sequence may fluctuate! Neither the manuscript nor the text of Vācho, although apparently old, bear a precise date, and the author remains difficult to identify. K. K. Shastriis proposes to equate Vācho with Vasto : the author of two ākhyāna-s : Sukadeva 16 and Subhadraharana; he is supposed to have lived before 156817. There are also one or two authors named Vaccharāja 18 belonging to the 16th century, one of whom wrote a Rasamanjarini vārtta"and the other a Kabirapadao, but neither the first nor the other two authors figure among the known Vaisnava bhakta-s. As far as Nākara is concerned, a prolific writer of akhyana belonging to the 16th century2, H. G. Bhayani has found in a passage of his Gujarati version of the "Aranyakaparva" of the Mahābhārata22 formulas and phrases recalling those of "Vaişnavajana..." used here to describe the qualities of a hero (śüra) in the YaksaYudhisthira samvāda23. Whatever the answer to the question of authorship, it appears from these texts that one need not be a sectarian Vaisnava in order to praise the Vaisnava ideal of conduct. And, conversely, a sectarian Vaisnava need not abide exclusively by the universal ideal of the "Vaisnavajana...". This becomes curiously evident if one considers the attitude of the Vallabhans, who form the major part of the Gujarati Vaisnava, towards Narasimha Mahetā and his pada. How do the Vallabhan Vaişnavas see Narasimha Mahetā ? Narasimha Maheta's name appears in none of the Braja värtā (hagiographic biographies) of Vallabhan saints, although Mira Bal herself is mentioned in the last of the "Eighty-four Vārtā" (Caurasī vaisnavana ki vārtā), but only to be denigrated24. No pada of Narsi is used in the Vallabhan liturgy (with one astonishing exception in the Bālakrsna mandira at Surat). However, among the dhola songs in use with the Vallabhan laymen, there are a few pada-s by Narasimha Mahetā. Indeed he could not be entirely rejected and, although he is not admitted among the pusti-bhakta-s, he, at least, has the quality of maryadā-bhakta, of one who follows the path of the 'dharmic duties but does not abandon himself to the grace of Krsna26. This is illustrated by the belief, among Vallabhans, that Narasimha Mahetă could reach ultimate perfection only after having been reborn in Gopāladāsa, the author of the Vallabhākhyāna27 or Navākhyāna, of the last quarter of the 16th century, the only Gujarati Vallabhan work

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to become known outside Gujarat as it was instrumental in founding the cult of living Mahārājas, descendants of Vallabha, as constant reincarnations of Krsna28. Whatever their doubts about Narasimha Mahetā, the Vallabhans approve of the "Vaisnavajang..." as defined by him, and any commoner will recognize in Narasimha Mahetā, the author of "Vaisnavajana...", the oldest and most important Gujarati Vaisnava totally free from sectarian links, whose life conformed to the generous ideal given in his poem, and who was perceived as being anterior to the arrival of Vallabhism in Gujarat. A possible source of “Vaişnavajana..." in old Gujarati Bhayani, in his article 'Vaisnavajana' padani samasyão29, discusses the different possible sources of the pada as proposed by anterior research. If he thinks it interesting to identify passages of the Visnupurānaso or of the Bhāgavatapurana", he prefers to stress the importance of an isolated text published by A. Bhojaks, the Vaisnava bhakta prabandha copai or Visnubhagata by a certain Mavo Vaisnava. This poem was written at Talājā, the birth-place of Narasimha Mahetā in Saurashtra, in the year Samvat 1587 (1530 A. D.) for a certain Gorā Rși of Patan, the manuscript of which was kept in the collection of the Jaina Ācārya Śri Vijaya Amkārasūrijī Mahārāja. In 51 stanzas written in the copai metre, the poem lists the qualities of the Vaisnava in a manner resembling the ideas and the vocabulary of “Vaisnavajana..." to such an extent that Bhayani is inclined to see in Narasimha Mahetā's pada a mnemonic summary of the Visnu bhagata of Mavo Vaisnava". Mávo starts with 15 copai enumerating the characteristics of the avaisnava "the one who is not a Vaisnava" with the following teka (refrain) : Kahu sriramani te kima gamai ? "How will he please Śrī Rāma ?" In stanzas 16 to 48 he describes the qualities of the Vaisnava with the teka of stanza 16 using the very word "Vaisnavajana...5*"; Kahi śri rāma vaisnava jana teha "Says Śrī Rāma : This is a true Vaisnava". In the last three stanzas he states his name, date and place of writing, and the benefits rewarding the reader. Māvo fits well into the tradition of non-sectarian saints of northern India, using the name of Sri Rāma or the Nāthapanthi terminology, as in stanza 45 and 46 for instances. But what is more striking is the fact that he includes purely Jaina rules among the rites to be observed by the Vaişnava, as for instance :
stanza 16 : the Vaisnava must observe jīvadayadharma, stanza 20 : he must drop the evening meal, stanza 22 : he must never drink unfiltered water, and finally
stanza 46 : he must restrain the eight kinds of karma-s. Māvo knew the Jaina dharma and recommended its observance 36. These features, as well as the fact that he was preöccupied with a purely ethical ideal, show to which extent Jaina influence had penetrated into the pre-Vallabhan Visnuism of Gujarat37. It is well known that the present-day Vaisnava and Jaina faithful strive to outdo each

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other in strictly observing ahimsā and severe vegetarian rules. Their aims, however, are different : the Vallabhans try to keep themselves free from any kind of pollution, whereas the Jainas want to annihilate the effects of karma. Yet in Māvo's text on the Vaisnava dharma one finds a complete convergence of views on how to achieve moral perfection and how to determine the norms of human behaviour.
Conclusion The ideal of "Vaisnavajana..." of course does not belong exclusively to Gujarati bhakti. From Kabīra3 to Tulasīdāsas, there is a wealth of definitions in the devotional literature in new Indo-Aryan languages. But what may have been Jaina influence in Gujarat, may have been the work of Buddhist influence in the North. Whereas Buddhism disappeared, Jainism survived and became predominant in Gujarat, and this may explain why Gujarati bhakti kept on a permanent interest in the theme of moral perfection and why non-sectarian forms of Visnuism did not disappear. Dayārāma, who wrote in the 19th century and was a Vallabhan, gave a final description of what a Vaisnava is not". His composition is sung in bhajana sessions at least frequently as “Vaisnavajana to tene kahiye.." :
Vaisnava nathi thayo tur re, harijana nathi thayo tuṁ re, sīda gumānamāṁ ghume. Harijanane joi hayuíň na harakhe, drave na Hari guna gātāń, kāma dāma cațaki nathi phataki, krodhe locana rätar. 1 Vaisnava nathi tur re,... Tuja samge koi vaisnava thaë, to tur vaisnava saco, tārā samgano ranga na läge, taham tur kāco. 2 Vaisnava nathi tur re,... Paradukha dekhi hrdaya na dājhe, paranindā nathi darato, vhälā nathi Vitthala suń sācur, hathe tuṁ huṁ huṁ karato. 3 Vaisnava nathi tuň re,... Paropkāre prīta na tujane, svārtha chutyo che nämhin, kaheni tevi raheni na male, kyāṁ lakhyun ema kaheni. 4 Vaisnava nathi tur re,... Bhajanā rūdha nathi mana niscaya, nathi Harino visvāsa, jagatataņi āşā che jyān lagi, jagata guru turn dāsa. 5 Vaisnava nathi tur re,... Manatano guru mana kariša to, sāci vastu jadase, Dayā duhkha ke sukha māna, pana sācuṁ kahevur padaće. 6 Vaisnava nathi tur re,...
You are not a Vaisnava Hari's devotee you are not.

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why are you engrossed in your pride? (refrain)
At the sight of a devotee of Hari, you don't rejoice at heart, to hear him sing the praise of Hari, your heart doesn't melt;
You did not keep yourself away from the charms of lust and wealth, your eyes are red with wrath. 1
If someone in your company becomes a Vaisnava,
only then you are a true Vaisnava,
but as long as your company is not powerful enough to imbue him,
a raw devotee you remain. 2

Seeing the miseries of others does not set your heart on fire,
you are not afraid of speaking ill of others;
your love for Vitthala is not true,
with obstinacy you only think of "Me Me !" 3
Generosity you do not love,
never you leave alone your own interest; your deeds do not match your words,
where has this been written ? 4
Devotional singing isn't firmly established in your mind and on Hari you do not put your faith;
so long as you place your expectations on the world, the world is your guru and you are its slave. 5
But if you take for guru your own mind,
you will reach the true Reality;
Nirgrantha
says Dayārāma: calamity or bliss, the Truth should be told. 6
Annotations :
* A first draft to this paper was read at the "Third International Conference on Devotional Literature in New Indo-Aryan Languages", at Leyden (The Netherlands), in December 1985.
1. On Narasimha Maheta, see F. Mallison, Au point du jour, les prabhatiyam de Narasimha Maheta, poéte et saint vishnouite du Gujarat (XVe siecle), Paris 1986 17-47 and bibliography 10-12; and J. Kothari, Narsimha Maheta, Delhi 1994.
2. The Gujarati text is taken from H. Bhayani " 'Vaisnavajana' padani samasyão," Bhāṣāvimarsa, 5-4, Ahmedabad 1982, 163. This is an emended version of the edition by S. Jesalpura, Narasimha Mahetani kävyakṛtio, Ahmedabad 1981, 382. Several translations into English and even into French were collected by D. Patel and J. N. Trivedi, Eds., Love Poems and Lyrics from Gujarati, Ahmedabad 1977, [42]-[45].

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3. The formula Pīda parāi jāre is also found in the Barvai n.79 of the poem 'Barvai' in Early
Hindi of Rahim (1536-1627): Pira paräi jänai "who can perceive another's pain", cf. R. Sneil, " 'Barvai' Metre in Tulsidas and Rahim," Studies in South Asian Devotional Literature Eds. A. W. Entwiste and F. Mallison, New Delhi-Paris 1994, 394. kācha : M. A. Mehendale (Samskrti, 26-7, Ahmedabad 1972, 219-220) proposes to understand kācha as "act, deed" and not as "body" or "sex" as it is often translated, duplicating the meaning of the following stanza. He proposes the etymology: Skr. krtya > Pkt. kacca >
Guj. kāca or kārya > kāja > kāca. 5. Ekotera : according to H. Bhayani in "Sabdaprayogoni pagadandi," Forbes Gujarati Sabha
Traimāsika, 54-2, Bombay 1989, 93 : "badotera so, bilamtara so," ekotera is to be read as ekotard so (i.e. as a Sanskrit copy of ekottara sata) and to be translated into Gujarati as so upara eka 'one plus one hundred' or 'one hundred and one and not as ekotera, usually
translated as 'seventy one'. 6. Ch. Vaudeville, L'Invocation, le Haripāth de Dñandev, Paris 1969, 62-65. 7. Ch. Vaudeville, Kabir, Oxford 1974, 99. 8. The Svāmī-nārāyani sect is a Krishnaite movement which was founded at the beginning
of the 19th century and which subsequently developed Guru worship in a separate
branch. It always showed a strong reformist and puritanical tendency. 9. K. K. Shastri, Narasimha Maheto, eka adhyayana, Ahmedabad 1971, 263. 10. Vaisnavajana was even compared with the Bible's Ten Commandments by M. H. Bhatt in
"Vaisnavajana to tene kahiye," Narasimha Mahetā āsvāda ane svādhyāya, Ed. R. Chaudhari,
Bombay 1988, 296. 11. See below Conclusion. 12. Shastri, Narasimha Maheto, 264 and S. Jesalpura, "Vaisnavajananun pada Narasimhanun
che, e viśe šamká nathi," Forbes Gujarati Sabhā Traimasika, 49-1, Bombay 1984, 78f. 13. M. B. Vyas, Vimalaprabandha, Surat 1913, Introduction, 44. 14. See M. Lath, "Bhajan as Song : Towards an Oral Stemma of Namdev's padas", Bhakti in
Current Research, 1979-1982, Ed. M. Thiel-Horstmann, Berlin 1983, 231-233. 15. Shastri, Narasimha Maheto, 263. 16. Ed. I. S. Desai, Brhat Kävyadohana, IV, Bombay 1890, 247-288. 17. K. K. Shastri, Kavicaritra (bhäga 1-2), Ahmedabad 1952, 318-323; R. Sh. Desai, Pracina
kavio ane temani krtio, Baroda repr. 1977, 414. 18. A third one is actually mentioned by K. M. Munshi, Narasimhayuganā kavio, Bombay
1962, 111. 19. Ed. Desai, Brhat Kävyadohana, IV, 199-246. 20. Shastri, Kavicaritra, 356-361; Desai, Pracīna kavio.,300. It was not possible to consult the
manuscript published by M. B. Vyas, but it would be interesting to check whether Vacho was not misread (or eventually miscopied) instead of Narachaio, one of the possible

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bhanitā of Narasimha. K. K. Shastri quotes the example of an old version of Vaisnavajana
bearing this signature (Shastri, Narasimha Maheto, 264). 21. Shastri, Kavicaritra, 203-216, and Desai, Prācīna Kavio., 254-260. 22. Ed. K. K. Shastri, Śri Mahābhārata (Gujarati prabandha), II, Bombay 1933, 274. 23. Bhayani, “Vaisnavajana," Bhāśāvimarśa, 165. 24. This vārtā records the life-story of Krsnadāsa, the fourth of the eight astachāpa, himself
hailing from Gujarat. The account of Mira-bãi is in the first episode (prasaṁga) : in order to prove his exclusive faith in the community of Vallabhācārya, Krsnadāsa refuses Mira's offer of hospitality and her gifts (see Ed. G. D. Parekh, Caurāsi vaisnavana ki vārtā, Mathura
1970, 530f., and R. Barz, The Bhakti Sect of Vallabhācārya, Faridabad 1976, 41 and 213f.) 25. Pada : 'Padhāryā Hari Kumkumane pagale", Ed. Jesalpura, Narasimha Mahetānī., 241. "The
Vallabhan gaddi at Surat which serves the svarüpa of Balakrsna was not always acknowledged by the other gaddi of the sampradaya. It owes its installation at Surat in
the year 1670 more to internal problems of inheritance than to Muslim persecution. 26. in fact, I was even told once at Mālīā, a small town near Junagadh in Saurashtra where
Narasimha Mahetā is supposed to have spent his life, that Narsi was not a 'pusti-pusti
bhakta' but a 'maryādā-pusti bhakta'! 27. Ed. I. S. Desai, Brhat Kävyadohana, VIII, Bombay 1913, 458-470. 28. See the introduction of M. T. Teliwala to his edition of the Vidvanmandanam of
Śri Vitthaleśvara, the son of Vallabhācārya, Kaman 1926, 3f. 29. Bhayani, "Vaişnavajana", Bhāṣāvimarsa, 163-167. 30. K. N. Joshi, "Narasimha Mahetae Vaisnavajanani vyākhyārupe sarjelā padani mīmāṁsā,"
Svadhyāya, 11-4, Baroda 1973, 326-328. 31. Shastri, Narasimha Maheto.,264f. 32. Ed. A. N. Bhojak, "Kavi Māvā-Māvaji racita Vaisnavabhaktaprabandhacopai," Sambodhi, 6
3,4 Ahmedabad 1977-78, 1-5. 33. Bhayani, "Vaişnavajan," Bhāşāvimarsa, 166. 34. According to K. N. Joshi, "Narasimha Mahetae.," Svādhyāya, 324f., the word Vaisnavajana
might have been coined by Narasimha and is less frequent than harijana. 35. Bhayani in "Narasimha-svadhyāya-3 : Vaisnava Narasimha," Bhasāvimarsa, 7-3, Ahmedabad
1984, 4, lists the different aspects of the Vaişnavism of Narasimha Mahetā which includes
Jainism, Näthism and the sambhoga-śrmgara type of bhakti. 36. In fact the unique manuscript of this poem was produced for a Jaina collection, according
to the colophon. 37. It is remarkable that the influence is mutual. Instances of Jaina monks composing Gujarāti
verses on the Krsna legend and miracles can be quoted; see, for instance, H. Bhayani, "Jalakamala prabhātiyāni prăcinatā ane tenui kartstva," Anusandhana, Ahmedabad 1972, 55-78 (reprinted from Svādhyāya, 7, Baroda 1969 398-412); or the Somakrta Sudāmāsára,

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Vol. III, 1997-2002 The << True Vaisnava >>..... 65 most probably a version of the Sudama caritra in Old Gujarati by a Jaina author, edited by M. R. Majmudar, Sudama сaritra, Baroda 1922, 105-109. 38. Kabira, sakhi 4, 24, Ed. Vaudeville, Kabir, 183. 39. See the pada quoted by K. N. Joshi, "Narasimha Maheta." Svadhyaya, 330f. 40. It is interesting to note that the Section XXVI of the Dhammapada which bears the title of The (true) Brahmana lists in 41 verses (v.383-423) the qualities of the perfect follower of the Buddha. The description of the (true) Brahman recalls our definition of the true Vaisnava : dispassionate, merciful, pure, free from anger, bereft of ill intention towards anybody, without attachment..., and in the same way as "Vaisnava" does not mean a mere devotee of Visnu but one who observes a high ideal of conduct, likewise "Brahman" does not mean one who is born into the brahmanic caste, but only one who embodies all the virtues of a perfect renouncer. Moreover, the same definition does exist in the Jaina Scriptures : Uttaradhyayana, XXV, 19ff. (ed. Sacred Books of the East, XLV, 138ff.) which describes the [true} Brahman as no more the specialist of rites and sacrifices but as one pure in mind, words, and deeds, without any attachment, a nirgrantha. I thank Mr J. P. Ozier for having brought to my notice these points (J. P. Ozier, "Le jainisme", Un monde de eligions, I. Les traditions de l'Inde, Ed. M. Boisvert, Quebec 1997, 95f., and the author's French translation of the Dhammapada to appear in Paris in 1997, 75-81). 41. See D. Dholakiya, "Vaisnavajana : be bhinna drstibinduo", Parab, 31-4, Ahmedabad 1990, 36 38. 42. The text given here is taken from an oral version collected during a bhajana at Surat (August 18, 1984, Balakrsna Mandira). It varies slightly from the old edition of Kavi Narmadasamkara (Dayarama krta Kavyasamgraha, Bombay 1887, 299) and from the current edition by Sh. Ch. Raval (Dayarama-rasasudha, sec. ed., Bombay 1953, 153). See F. Mallison, "Les chants dhola au Gujarat et leur usage pour la devotion vallabhite", Bulletin de l'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, LXXV, Paris 1986, 91-93.