________________
ANCIENT JAINA HYMNS
Only from Hemacandra's "Abhidhāna-cintamanikosa", I, st. 45, such an association might appear to exist. For, Hemacandra, instead of mentioning Mallinātha's Śāsana-devī under her actual name, refers to her as “Dharaña- privā”, which he explains, in his "Svopajñatīkā”, as “Dharanoragendras i priyā Vairotyā”, i.e., "Vairotyā, consort of Dharaṇa, the Indra of the Snakes”. Obviously, this Vairogyā cannot be separated from the goddess whom Aryānandila invokes in his "VairotyaDevi-stava”, as “Dharaninda-padhama-patti Vaïruttā nāma Vāgiņi” (st.4), and as “Dharaṇoraga-dažā...... Vaïruttā” (st.12). The Prabhāvaka-carita contains, in its “Aryanandila-carita”,? an account of the origin of this stava, in the form of a legend, the motif of which recurs in Hindu folk-lore. According to this engend, Vairotyā was the wife of a merchant's son named Padma, and the mother of Nāgadatta, a disciple of Aryanandila (the second “a” of the latter name being short here). By some action of kindness, Vairotyā gained the favour of the snake people, who adopted and treated her as a relative, overshowering her with divine favours. After her death, she became the queen of their ruler Dharaṇa, the same divinity whom we mentioned previously as Pārsvanātha's Sāsana-deva (“Dharanendrasya devī Sri-Pārsva-sevituh"), and has since then been assisting her mate in coming to the rescue of devotees of Pārsvanātha, especially in danger threatening from poison or fire. Aryanandila, who had been Vairotvā’s Guru in her human existence, composed in her honour, the above mentioned hymn, the recitation
(1) Vide J. St. Sand., I, p. 347 ff. and its Introduction, p. 8.
(2) L. 1., p. 19 ff.; vide also Muni Kalyanavijaya's lemarks in his Introduction to the Gujarati Translation of the Prabhāvaka-carita (Jaina Atmananda Sabha, Bhavnagar, V. S. 1987), p. 22.
68
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
