Jain Journal 2005 01

SR No.: 520157
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 2005
Total Pages: 58
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

Page 32

DEVEN YASHWANT: ANEKANTA AND ITS PARALLELS
by different Dhurtas. Although the way of criticism is not indecent, but criticism is there. It can easily be called criticism of the Purāņas. The Dhurtas narrate all fantastic stories and prove them to be true with the similar stories available in different Purāņas. However, the learned Jainācārya did not touch the Jain mythological stories of which there is no dearth. A child immediately after his birth presses a mountain of one lac yojanas by the thumb of his foot to the extent that the mountain trembles. A horse increases his size to unbelievable extent, but bows down only by a single punch of the fist of the child. These stories are attributed to Vardhamana.
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We find that Acārya Vimala Sūri in his Paumacariyan called all the writers of Rama-stories as liars. The respected characters of Hindu Rāmāyaṇa are portrayed in disrespect. To give a few examples, Hanuman of the Rāmāyaṇa, a perfect bachelor, is painted as a womanizer. Rāvaṇa, a disreputable character in the Rāmāyaṇa, is portrayed as the would be Tirthankara in another age. Rāma portrayed as God in the Rāmāyaṇa is said to suffer on account of his acts of voilence and could attain liberation (Mokṣa) only after a penance of 19000 years. The Manavadharmaśāstra, a book of Brahmanical system, is described as Hiṁsāśāstra by Acarya Hemacandra Sūri in his Yogsastra [2.37-40].
Bhaṭṭāraka Vādicandra openly criticized the Brahmanical Śiva Purāņa as false simply for presenting the genealogy of the Pandavas contrary to Jain Mahābhārata.
In the Avaśyaka-cūrṇi, a Jain religious book of the 8th century A.D., Śiva is described as the son of a nun who had been magically impregnated by a wizard and in this process got a hole in his forehead (seems to be the version of the 3rd eye of Śiva). Śiva is here stated to have been killed for his violent behaviour by a prostitute named Umā. In Hindu mythology Uma is known as Pārvatī and is also worshipped along with Siva. The idea seems to simply degrade the deities of other religions.