Ancient Jaina Hymns

Author(s): Charlotte Krause
Publisher: Oriental Institute

Page 88

ANCIENT JAINA HYMNS
by the poet himself, who first framed the beginning of this stanza in this way, and later rejected the phrase in favour of the present wording. The general correctness of the spelling of the whole text is in favour of such an assumption. This would greatly enhance the value of the MS., which is, anyhow, the only record of this hymn known up till now, and, in view of the celebrity of its author, a find of no small literary importance.
5. THE TĪRTHAMĀLĀ-CAITYAVANDANA: According to Svetambara terminology, a “caityavandana" is a short ritual performed (either separately in the temple, or as part of the “Avasyaka"-liturgy) in praise of the “caitya", i. e., the Jina Temple, and what the latter stands for. It consists in the recitation of liturgic formulas and hymns in Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhramsa, and Modern Indian languages respectively, under adoption of prescribed postures, accompanied by the performance of a number of obeisances ("khamāsaņā”) and the "kāyotsarga” rite (i. e., a certain posture which is held for a certain measure of time with perfect motionlessness ). Those formulas and hymns are fixed, except for two hymns which the devotee selects himself, one for being recited in the beginning, the other at the end of the ritual. The former of these two hymns bears itself the name of "caitya-vandana”, which represents a particular type of hymnal literature.
A "caitya-vandana" in the latter sense is always a short poem in praise of the Tīrthankara, the Tirthankara image, the Tīrthaikara temple, the Jaina Tirtha, or any abstract idea connected with Tirthankara worship which lends itself to eulogy. The Jina statue, being
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