Tulsi Prajna 1975 07

SR No.: 524503
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Mahavir Gelada
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1975
Total Pages: 116
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 7 MB

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the Ajivika philosopher Makkhaliputta Gosala was also probably a Brāhmanical temple. The is only ‘ceiya' of the Jain literature whose name has the significant ending mandira meaning probably a devakula. We should further note that the deities and even noble persons were often called 'Yaksas' in ancient India. In the Majjhima Nikaya26 and the Pelavatthu2 7 Indra is called a 'Yakşa. The famous city of gods Alakanandā is mentioned in the Digha28 as the city of Yakşas. Even Buddha is called a “Yakşı' in the Majjhima Nikaya29 The highly interesting Buddhist Sanskrit text the Mahamayūri, recently edited and translated by D. C. Sircar30, has a comprehe. nsive list of the so called Yaksa shrines in which almost all the well known Hindu gods are called “Yaksas. As for example, Vişnu of Dvārakā in verse No. 19, Siva of Sivapura in verse 47 and Kärttikeya of Rohitaka in No. 35. We have already noted that the epics, the Rāmāyana and Mahābhārata have nothing but deíerence for the Yakşas, who were superior in character and demeanour, to the Rākşasas and Pisācas. Even a person like Yudhişthira is delineated in the Mahabharata31 as worshipping the Yakşa Manibhadra whose shrine according to the Jain texts, 32 was situated both at Mithilā and Vardhamānapura of
Bengal. This particular Yakşa is mentioned elsewhere in the Mahābhāraia as the presiding deity of travellers and traders 33 and a Buddhist canonical text 3 4 alludes to a shrine of the same Yakşa at Gayā. Another Buddhist text 3 5 refers to the sects who apparently worshipped Manibhadra and Pú. rnabhadra both of whom are honourably mentioned in the Jain texts.
The list given above regarding some of the Yaks?-cetiyas shows that most of these shrines were situated in eastern India. There is no doubt that Yakşaworship was basically anti-Vedic in character. And only when the fusion of Aryans with non-Aryans was complete, that they were looked upon with veneration. It is also a fact that a few members of the Brāhmaṇical pantheon like Siva, Ganapati,Skanda and Durga were originally local deities, worshipped by non-Aryans, or to put it more correctly, un-Aryans. Both Jainism and Buddhism, which were basically anti-Vedic naturally befriended popular and indigenous religious systems whi. ch had a greater appeal for the masses. Pārşva, who may be called the real founder of Jainism, probably used to visit the well Yaksa shrines of Vārānasi. His visit to the famous Pürnabhadra shrine of Campā is recorded in the Nāyādhammakahão,36 the 6th Anga text. Regarding his
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