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Historical Origin & Ontological Interpretation of Arbat Pärsva's Assoc.
thousand heads are shown as a canopy over Visņu. In the vithika (forelobby) of the Bädämi Cave III (A.D. 578) is the famous figure of Vişņu sitting on the coils of the Naga Ananta spreading his heads as a canopy over the Lord.
During the Vedic period we have the famous battle between Indra and Vṛtra. Here Vitra figures as a malevolent being, like Kaliya of Yamuna river or the Canda-Naga subdued by the Buddha or the Canda-Kausika brought to saneness by Mahāvīra. There is an ever-existing contest between the forces of light and of darkness, good and evil, gods and demons, life and death. Kṛṣṇa-Vişņu, Siva, Buddha, Pāršva, and Mahavira represent powers of good, light, and life; Vṛtra, Kälīya, Mära, Kamatha, Canda and Canda-Kausika represent the opposite, the powers of darkness and death.
Näga with his thousand snake-heads possibly represents "human mind" with its innumerable evil instincts, attitudes, feelings, tempers and thoughts. When subdued, reformed and sublimated, the same mind is transformed from a malevolent to at benevolent force. Mythology of the Buddha, Pärśvanatha, or Kṛṣṇa-Vişņu plausibly represents an advancement upon the earlier Vedic conception of Indra-Vṛtra fight. In later conceptions, it is recognised that the mind which is a bondage and an obstacle can be transformed into a protector, friend or benefactor. So says the Gita mana eva manuṣyāṇāṁ bandba-mokṣayoḥ.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1. Walther Schubring, The Doctrine of the Jainas, Delhi 1962, p. 28.
2. The Avasyaka-cūrṇi, pp. 273, 286.
3. The Avatyaka-cůrni, pp. 285, 291; Brbat-Kalpa-Bhasya, I. 1328-57.
4. The Avasyaka-cūrṇi, p. 291.
5. The Avasyaka-niryukti, 335.
6. The Nayadhammakabão, II, p. 222.
7. Ibid., p. 229.
8. Ibid., p. 230.
9. Idha Mahārāja Nigantho Näthaputto caturyāmasamvara samvuto hoti /-Digha-nikaya, I. 57 (Samaññaphala-sutta)
10. The Vyakhya-prajñapti, 9.32.
11. The Nayadhammakbão, 19.
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12. The Vyakhya-prajñapti, 2.5. 13. The Sutrakṛtänga, 2.7.
14. The Rayapaseniya-sútta, 147 f
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