Aspects of Brahmanical Influence On Jaina Mythology

Author(s): Shaktidhar Jha
Publisher: Bharat Bharti Bhandar

Page 99

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The Manus and their periods from the womb) and Atmabhū (self-born) The terms in question are too celebrated to require any reference to the Brahmanical sources for establishing Brahma's original claim to them In fact, the appropriation of the above epithets and names to Rşabha, obviously born of a parent, cannot be justified without a reference to the Brahmanıcal conception of the nature and exploits of the Creator Moreover, the ascription of the attributes like Padmagarbh710, Padmasambhūtį11 and Padmayonill etc. to the first Jina are all reminiscent of another version of the Brahmapical conception of the same God of creation representing him as sprung from a lotus shooting forth from the Davel (Nābhi) of Visnu 13
Apart from the above representa*ion Rşabha has also been identified with some of Brahma's immediatc descendants pertaining to two different Manvantaras of Hindu cosmogony. As a matter of fact, various substrata of creative process have been combined in Rşabhadeva's personality, in an anachronistic way Consequently he has been made to represent not only threc generations of the first Manvantara but also four generations of the present Varvasvata Manvantara inasmuch as he has been variously styled Svayambhül, Hiran yagarbha16 Kaśyapalo, Manu?? and Iksvālu, each of whom is distinct from the other according to the Brahmanical genealogical records Besides that, the Purānas also call him Puru18, who, according to the epic and the Brahmanical Purānas, was an illustrious king and founder of the main branch of the Lunar dynasty and was later than Ikşoaku by five generations 19
9 Ibid 24 33, 25 100 10 Ibid 25 81 11 Ibid 25 113 12 Ibid 25 134 13 " rat na grupa 7739EUTGITATTI
ब्रह्मा चराचरगुरुय॑स्येद सकल जगत् ॥" MB2, III 12 38 Here Krsna has been conceived as the full incarna
tion of Visnu Mārka p 81 51 Matsga 168 14-15,109 1-2 14 VPC, 28 48a, 15 VPS, 3 68 16 MP 16 266, PMP, 10 5 18 17 JHV 81, MP 18 206 18 JHV 8 211, MP, 3 239, 16 71, 1772, 24 30, 25 143, 47 392, 400, 19. Pargiter, Ancient Indian Historical Tradition, pp 144-45,