Some Jaina Canonical Sutras

SR No.: 011033
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Royal Asiatic Society
Publication Year: 1949
Total Pages: 229
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Agam, & Canon
File Size: 24 MB

Page 66

52
SOME JAINA CANONICAL SOTRAS
In view of the impending calamity of the city of Dvāravati Krsna asked all persons to renounce the world and lead the mendicant life in the religious order of Aritthanemi. Under this persuasion his queens headed by Padmāvati, and the two wives of Prince Samba became nuns, studied the eleven angas, observed religious practices, and then passed away obtaining the final liberation.
Here we have a very curious Jaina version of the Krsna legend, having a few points of similarity with the Brahmanical and Buddhist versions. The obvious purpose of the Jaina narratives was to gain popularity for the Jaina faith in Western India by making the local people believe that the whole of the Yādava race attained salvation under the benign influence and guidance of Ariţthanemi, the twenty-second Tirtharkara. The Jaina inventor of the legends would purposely ignore the fact that Krşņa Vāsudeva's teacher was Ghora Angirasa. According to the Upanişad tradition Krsna following the instruction of Ghora Angirasa became free from all worldly attachments. According to the Jaina legend he could aspire to become a Jina. These were the current legends accounting for the destruction of the Andhakavssņis.
It is no less important to note that the Jaina legends connect the sons of Pāņdu with the Pāņdya country of the south with Mathură (modern Madoura) as its capital. Dr. Barnett rightly observes: "The Pāņdiyans, however, were not Pāndavas, and the Jaina identification of the two dynasties is probably based on popular etymology. A like attempt to connect the two families occurs in the Tamil chronicle given in Taylor's Oriental Historical MSS. (Vol. I, pp. 195ff.), which states that Madurā at the time of the Bhārata war was ruled by Babhruvāhana, the son of Arjuna, by the daughter of the Pāņdiyan king of Madurā. The Mahābhārata, on the other hand, makes Babhruvāhana the son of Arjuna, by Citrāngadā, daughter of Citravāhana, the king of Manipura.'
The association of the Pāņdyas of the south with the Sūrasenas of Mathurā and the Pāndus of Northern India is probably alluded to in the confused statement of Megasthenes regarding Heracles and Pandaia.1 In the Pāli chronicles of Ceylon the Pāņdyas are invariably represented as Pāņdus.2 In the Jätakas the five sons of Pāņdu are nowhere connected with the Kuru country. Arjuna of the Yudhisthira line, who
1 B. C. Law, Tribes in Ancient India, p. 190; H. C. Raychaudhuri, Political History of Ancient India, 4th Ed., p. 272; McCrindle, Ancient India (Megas. thenes and Arrian), pp. 163-164.
2 Cf. Mahavamsa, Chap. 7, v. 50; Dipavamsa, Chap. 4, verse 41.