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TIRTHANKARA PARSVANATHA AND
NAGA-CULT
- Acharya Gopi Lal Amar*
If at all Naga-cult has to be viewed in full flourish in Jainism, it may well be viewed in the literature and art illustrating the life of Parsvanatha, twentythird and the last-but one Tirthankara. His time, ninth century B.C., was perhaps the golden period of the Nagas as a tribe and as the rulers. The sasanadevata couple, called Dharanendra Yaksa and Padmavati Yaksi of Parsvanatha, make an unparalleled example of the fiercest animal beings turning into celestial beings, those also as auspicious as to hold the highest position of presiding deities (sasana-devata) of a Tirthankara.
Parsvanatha belonged to the Kasyapa-gotra and Iksvakuvamsa; the tenth-century text Mahapurana (94,22,23) of Puspadanta, however, mentions him belonging to Ugra-vamsa. - Yet some scholars think he belonged to Nagavamsa. Here the word ugra, meaning formidable, seems to have replaced the word uraga, meaning a snake, by way of transposition of a consonant, as simha replaced himsa and draha hrada in Sanskrit, Banaras replaced Varanasi in Hindi and tagma replaced tamgah in Turkish. The symbol on Parsvanatha's flag was a snake and his cognizance was also a snake. Even his complexion was a dark as that of a snake.
Moreover, it is not unlikely that the snake-hood canopy over the head of the seventh Tirthankara Suparsvanatha, was inspired by the one with Parsvanatha; it should be like this because (i) there is no type of association of snake with Suparsvanatha, (ii)
* Delhi
