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अनुसन्धान - ५४ श्रीहेमचन्द्राचार्यविशेषांक भाग - २
Are Pandava Brothers Jaina or Non-Jaina?
An unprecedented explanation by Acarya Hemacandra
Padmanabh S. Jaini
A list of 54 uttama-purushas (in the present avasarpini) appears in the Samavaya (#54). The list begins with names of twenty-four Tirthankaras (from Rshabha to Mahavira). Then appear the names of twelve Cakravartins: Bharata, Sagara, Maghavā, Sanatkumāra, Shānti, Kunthu, Ara, Subhauma, Mahāpadma, Harishena, Jaya, and Brahmadatta.
The Samavaya next introduces two entirely new categories of "uttama-purushas", called Baladeva and Vasudeva. They are described as duve duve Rama-Kesavā bhāyaro, nine pairs of brothers. The elder, the more virtuous one, is called Rāma (also Balarama or Baladeva) and the younger, the supreme warrior, is called Keshava (also Vasudeva and Nārāyana). For example, the 8th Rāma (Rāma, the son of Dasharatha) is a Baladeva, while his younger brother Lakshmana is the 8th Keshava (Vasudeva or Nārāyana). Another famous pair is of the 9th Baladeva, whose proper name is Balarama, and the 9th Keshava, Balarama's younger brother Krishna Vasudeva (also known as Nārāyana, and Vishnu in later Jain texts).
Although they are not "uttama-purushas", the Samavāya gives an additional category of the deadly enemy of the Vasudeva, called Prati-Vasudeva (or Prati-Nārāyana), also nine in number. The Vasudeva inevitably kills him and then rules as "Ardha-Cakrin", the Lord of the Three Continents of the Bharata-kshetra. For example, Lakshmana (and not Rāma) kills Rāvana (his Prati-Vasudeva); Krishna kills Jarasandha (his PratiVasudeva).
A grand narrative of the 54 Mahāpurushas (24+12+9+9)
