Ancient Jaina Hymns

SR No.: 011036
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Charlotte Krause
Publisher: SCIndia Oriental Institute Ujain
Publication Year: 1952
Total Pages: 185
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Literature, & Worship
File Size: 7 MB

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ANCIENT JAINA HYMNS
Yaksinis as connected in mythology and ritual with the Tirthankaras". It does not seem, however that such a priority can be proved for the Sasanadevis as a class, leaving aside individual cases. I think, the above synopsis goes, on the contrary, strongly against this theory. For, the list of the Vidya-devis of the Svetāmbaras (vide "Nirvāṇakalikā”) exactly agrees with that of the Digambaras (vide "Pratiṣṭhā-sara") not only with regard to the names themselves, but also to their order (deviations being restricted to their attributes), while, on the other hand, the lists of the Sasanadevis (vide the same two works) differ from each other so strikingly both in names and order (not to speak of the attributes) that in fact only three out of the 24 can be recognized at first sight as mutual replica (viz., Nos. 1, 23, and 24). This leads to the conclusion that the common list of the Vidya-devis must go back to the time before the schizma of the Jaina-sangha into Digambaras and Śvetāmbaras had occurred, and that it has been handed down unaltered from generation to generation up to this day, while the lists of the names of the Šāsana-devis, as entities, developed separately in two different directions, incorporating, of course, single items, which represented a common heritage, such as the names of Sasana-devis Nos. 1, 23, and 24, as well as those of the pertinent Vidya-devis, pointed out above. Significantly enough, even those eight Vidya-devi-names which are common to the list of the 11 taken over by the Śvetāmbaras, and the 13 taken over by the Digambaras as Šāsana-devi-names, have been apportioned to different Tirthankaras. This accounts for the fact that Vairotya, the thirteenth Vidya-devi, who alone interests us here, has become associated with the 13th Jina in Digambara, but with the 19th in Svetāmbara theology.
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