Doctrine of Jainas

Author(s): Walther Shubring, Wolfgang Beurlen
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 39

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JAINISM
25 bhūenam appănenam kucсhimse gabbham vakkante Āyār. II p. 121, line 22 (to supply gabbham)
No more than the Canon refers to the symbols does it refer to the two deities of male and female sex associated with every Titthagara They are called yaksa and yaksınī or yaksi or säsana(śruta) devatā. The latter may well have inaugurated the conception in so far as it was the commandment of Jina that first took on human shape, i e. female shape in correspondence with basic Indian conceptions. Moreover, there was the demand for granting powers establishing for laymen since the preachers of salvation were beyond reach of their supplications. Their names, again, disclose obvious suggestions of the Brahman sphere of ideas. For these as well as for other persons and objects pertaining to the later cult comp v GLASENAPP, Jainismus p. 362ff, 4923
$15. At the beginning of her pregnancy the mother of a Tıtthagara has experienced 14 visions by dreaming as has Such of a cakkavatti, whereas the mother of a vasudeva has visioned 7, such of a baladeva 4, and such of a mandalıya I out of those 14. The germ for these figures is in the 14 dreams of Mabāvīra's mother (Jinac. $ 32 ff)4. Acc. to Vıy. 70ga we have (to refer to this here) 42 normal and 30 major dreams (mahā-suvina) of the kind of dreams in pregnancy mentioned above. Ten dreams were visioned by Mv when still a chaumattha ($ 81, also Thān. 499a). 14 dreams immediately lead to true cognition and in most cases to salvation within the same existence. The dream belongs to the 8 possible omens (nimitta, Thān. 427a) and is considered rather incongruently
I About the importance of the yaksi cult in South India see DESAI Jainism in South India, 1957
2 For the picture-teaching of the Dig comp BURGESS IA 32, 459-464, XIII OC, 74, in The Indian Sect of the Jainas ( $ 4), ) L JAINI ÍA 33, 330-332 . For the Svet see Helen M JOHNSON, ÍA 56,
23-28
3 A movement against the Śruta-d see § 33
4 A representation in colours was reviewed by HUTTEMANN, Baessler-Archiv IV, H 2 The Dig know of 16 dreams
5 nimitta as well as uppāya a. O pertain to the region of the pāva. suya-pasanga (Thān, 45/a)