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Arbat Parsva with Dharanendra in Hymnic Literature
litany, the Ajita-Santi-stava of Nandişena (c. late 5th or early 6th cent. A.D.), as the title of the hymn implies, is devoted exclusively to two Jinas, the second Tirthankara Ajitanatha and to the 16th Jina Santinātha." The next hymnist, Mänatunga Sūri (c. late 6th-early 7th cent. A.D.), the author of the very famous Sanskrit hymn, the Bhaktamara-stotra, a "rayer addressed to Jina Ṛsabha, had also composed a Präkṛta litany in praise of Jina Parsva whose very name he extols as "dispeller of calamities". It, regrettably, fails to take cognizance of Dharanendra. The very popular Uvasaggabara-thotta regarded as the composition of Arya Bhadrabahu (active C. B.C. 310-290 BC.) or his namesake, the so-called Bhadrabähu II (the supposed brother of Varahamihira: c. early 6th century AD.) in the northern, but of Mänatunga Sûri in the southern tradition,14 is in reality a quasi-magical hymn in Präkṛta, of the ninth or better still of tenth century, composed by some unknown northern caityavāsi or abbatial monk, revolving around Jina Pārsva; it, to all seeming and according to its commentator Pärsvadeva of the 12th century, notices Jina's attendant Pārsva Yakṣa (but does not allude to Nägendra Dharana"). Similarly, the Vairotya-stava (c. 9th or 10th cent. A.D.) (wrongly ascribed to Arya Nandila of the Kuşăņa period), praises Vidyadevi Vairotyä (who had been come to be looked upon, again of course wrongly, as the consort of Dharanendra from pre-medieval times on), likewise fails to invoke the Lord of the Nägas or Jina Pārsva either.
Turning once again to the hymnal compositions in Sanskrit, in the StutiCaturvinsatikā (c. A.D. 775-800) of Bhadrakirtti alias Bappahatți Sūri, an extensive hymn which uses the ornament pädänta-yamaka in each stanza and is addressed to the 24 Jinas, a reference to Nägaraja Dharanendra in context of Arhat Pārsva is likewise missing. Bhagavaj-Jinasena of Pañcastüpänvaya, a luminary of the southern Church, on the other hand, does portray and indeed graphically, the famous PārsvaSambara-Dharanendra episode in his elegant as well as powerfully rendered composition, the Parśvābhyudaya-kavya (probably some time before A.D. 839)." Sambara's (Kamatha's) tyranny unleashed on the meditating Pärśva and the consequent epiphenic manifestation of Nāgarāja Dharanendra for the Arhat's protection have been graphically described there in 11 verses (4.48-58). But the Pärsväbhyudayakavya is a legendary-biographical, and not a hymnical work. This is also true of the Pārsvanatha-caritra (A.D. 1025) of Vädiraja of Dravida Sangha, one other great figure of the southern church which does describe in brief the upasarga-episode but contains no hymn which describes the figure of Pārsva canopied by Dharaṇendra even when he alludes to his appearing on the scene at the right moment along with Padmavati, 18
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