Jain Rup Mandan

SR No.: 001961
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Umakant P Shah
Publisher: Abhinav Publications
Publication Year: 1987
Total Pages: 466
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Art
File Size: 27 MB

Page 82

A. KULAKARAS
The Brahmanical traditions give a list of fourteen Manus or law-givers, who are also known as propagators of mankind. The Jainas similarly acknowledge a set of first law-givers who flourished in the present Avasarpini Age (in the third division called susama-duhṣama, when beings were born as twins and when the Wishing Trees (kalpa-vrksa) used to provide them with necessary food, light and other necessities of life). The age of the Kulakaras was a primitive one, when arts and sciences were not known, and crime and punishment were in infancy.1
In course of time, the Wishing Trees failed to give proper service and man was obliged to protect himself against wild animals etc., and quarrels over properties arose. In difficulties such as these, man could approach the Kulakaras of his times for proper guidance, protection and dispensation of justice. Kulakaras were thus the first law-givers in Jainism.2
According to the Svetambaras, Rṣabha, the first Tirthankara, was the last Kulakara, while according to the Digambaras, Nabhi, the Father of Rṣabha, was the last law-giver. The Bhagavati, the Sthānanga and the Samaväyänga sutras and the Avaśyaka Niryukti representing earlier Svetambara traditions, give a list of seven such law-givers of the present Avasarpiņi and are followed by later writers like Hemacandra.3 The Avaśyaka Niryukti and the Acaradinakara further give the complexions of these Kulakaras. The Kala-Lokaprakāśa gives different complexions. Below is given a table showing complexions of Kulakaras and names of their wives according to these texts:
Svetambara List
Kulakara
5.
6.
7.
1.
2. Cakṣuşman
3.
4.
Vimalavāhana
CHAPTER SIX
Kulakaras and Salākāpuruṣas
Yasoman (Yasasvin)
Abhicandra
Prasenajit
Marudeva
Nabhi
Wife
Candrayasa Candrakantā
Complexion acc. to Ava. Nir. and Aca. Di.
Golden
Black
Black
White
Black
Suropa
Pratirüpå
Cakṣuḥkäntä
Śrikäntä
Marudevi
(Wives of all the Kulakaras are black in complexion.)
Golden
Golden
Colour acc. to Loka P.
But the Jambudvipaprajñapti differs from other Agama texts by giving the following list of fifteen Kulakaras instead of the usual seven noted above: 1. Sumati, 2. Pratiśruti, 3. Simankara, 4. Simandhara, 5. Kṣemankara, 6. Kṣemandhara, 7. Vimalavähana, 8. Cakṣuşman. 9. Yaśasvin, 10. Abhicandra, 11. Candrabha, 12. Prasenajit, 13. Marudeva, 14. Nabhi, 15. Rṣabha.
Golden
Golden
Golden
Black
Golden
Golden
Golden