Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

Author(s): Suzuko Ohira
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

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(3) Great personages of the Jainas
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The topic of great personages including 24 tirtharkaras makes its appearance in V.5.202. According to it, in Bharata in this present avasarpiņi 7 kulakaras, 24 tirthankaras, their parents, their first female followers, 12 cakravartis, their mothers and consorts, 9 baladevas, 9 vasudevas, their parents, and 9 prativasudevas are born. It refers to Samavaya 246ff. for further information. X V1.6.577 (cf. D-2a-3) mentions that there are fourty-two common dreams and thirty great dreams, which are also known to Sthana X.1035, for instance. It then informs the number of dreams to be seen by the mothers of the great personages as follows: fourteen dreams by the mothers of tirtharkaras and cakravartis, seven out of fourteen by the mothers of vasudevas, four by the mothers of baladevas, and one by the mothers of mandalikas. In the Sudarsana story in X1.11.427-31 (cf. A-2), the mother of Mahabala (Sudarsana's past life) dreamed one of these fourteen dreams, by which he was foretold to become a mandalika or a provincial governor.
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Needless to say, vasudevas, baladevas and prativasudevas, who are merely expressing the hierarchical positions of the Jaina great personages, were taken over from the Vaişnavas who kept on troubling the Jainas at Mathura from the late Kushan through the Gupta period to the effect that the Jainas had to desert the city. The Jainas, in revenge, placed all these great Vaisnavas under the dominion of tirthankaras. This theme then expanded to produce the Jaina puranas in the medieval age. All these texts belong to the final canonical stage.
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Finally, X V1.4.624 reads that as many 'varā amdhaga-vanhino jiva' exist so many 'para amdhaga-vanhino jiva' do. Andhaka-vrsnis are the descendants of Krsna. 'Vara purisa' denotes Vasudeva Krsna. Therefore, 'vara... jiva' are vasudevas and 'parā... jiva' are prativasudevas. There are 9 vasudevas, 9 baladevas and 9 prativasudevas. This text therefore amounts to saying that the number of vasudevas and that of prativasudevas are equal. This passage seems to be exhibiting an earlier position prior to the formulation of the number of these personages. From an archaeological source, a class of Neminatha image flanked by Vasudeva and Balarama is said to make appear, ance in the late Kushan and post-Kushan age." Vasudeva occurring in the Jnatadharma 1.5 and 16, for instance, is expressed in the singlular, but the Jambudvipa p. VI.175 expresses him in the plural. In all probability, this text was composed in the fourth-early fifth canonical stages prior to the Jambudvipa p.