Ancient Jaina Hymns

SR No.: 034743
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Charlotte Krause
Publisher: Oriental Institute
Publication Year: 1952
Total Pages: 184
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 13 MB

Page 109

REMARKS ON THE TEXTS the former text, mentions them with the exclusion of any other name.
Traces of the “Vidyādhara”-legend can be found in the Jaināgama itself, where the two rows of "Vidyādhara-cities” are repeatedly mentioned as adorning the slopes of the Vaitāļhya', though details and names are not given.
Though it is not feasible restlessly to solve, with the help of the text-material available at present, the fascinating problem of the origin of the 16“Vidyā-devīs” and of their relationship with the ancient "vidyās'', as raised by Dr. Miss Helen Johnson', still thus much can be inferred from a comparison of the respective names that the first, second, ninth and tenth “Vidyādevis" are identical with the four "mahāvidyās" enumerated above, the two latter of whom again seem to have derived their names from the designations of the first and third "vidyā”-groups of “Vidyadhara"'-land. Besides, the names of two further “Vidyā-devis”, viz., Nos. 7 and 12, seem to have been derived from the names of the "vidyā”-groups Nos. 10 and 4 respectively. It is thus possible that each of the 16 "Vidyā-devis" may originally have been imagined as representing one of the 16"vidyā-nikāyas” of “Vidyādhara"-land, bearing either an individual name, or a generic name derived from that of her group, or perhaps both.
Incidentally, the names of all the sixteen "Vidyādevīs” find themselves again, without exception, in
(1) Jambudvipa-prajõapti IV; Sthânārga-sātra X, 3.
(2) In her English Translation of the "Trisasti-salåkāpuruşa-carita", Vol. I, p. 176.
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