________________
74
Early Jainism
to the different heavenly regions). All this is impressive so far as it goes but the fact remains that these references to a godly birth are essentially such as fall outside the body proper of the story concerned. A more intrlcate part of the story are the godly doings of a particular sort. Thus in the case of some contingency a god might come to the assistance of a man, the two possibly having been friends in some former birth. For example, in the Meghakumāra story of Jñātadharmakatha a god a tificially creates the atmosphere of rainy season because such was the desire of the pregnant queen when Meghakumara appeared in her womb; the assistance of this god was sought by a step-son of the queen, this god and this step-son having been friends in some former birth. Similarly, in the Draupadi story of the same text a god kidnap Draupadi on the request of a king who was his friend in some former birth, (on Kṛṣṇa's request another god created an oceanic path traversing which on chariot Krsna and the five Pandavas reached the capital of this king and released Draupadi ). There is also another maneuver for a god to intervene in human affairs, for he might appear there to test the worth of some person. Thus in so many Upāsakaḍaśā stories a god applies various strategems with a view to testing the firmness of a character's faith in Jainism, (the motif is also prevalent in the Malli story of Jnatadharmakatha where a trader-Jaina traversing the ocean by ship is subjected to a similar testing). An altogether different type of godly participation in things human takes place in the case of a Tirthankara; for the gods are supposed to attend on a Tirthankara when he enters the mother's womb when he is born, when he renounces the world, when he attains omniscience, and when he dies. Since Malli, the heroine of a Jñatadharmakatha story, is the 19th of the 24 Tirthankaras we have here an opportunity to learn as to how the gods discharge this part of their responsibility.
Closely related to the mythology of heaven and heavenly beings (and that of hells and hellish beings) is the concept of the cycle of 63 mighty personages posited by the Jaina authors, a cycle supposed to appear here in the world at regular intervals of an astronomical dimension. Of these 63 mighty personages 24 are Tirthankaras, 12 Cakravartins, 9 Vasudevas, 9 Baladevas, and 9 Prativasudvas - a member of each group possessing a definte set of superhuman capacities. Our story-texts nowhere refer to this whole cycle of 63 personages. And though Mahavira and Aristanemi - two of the 24 Tirthankaras of our part of the world in our times - are often mentioned there we seldom come across any of the biographical details pertaining to them; it is only Mall - another Tirthankara like Mahavira and Aristaneml-who has the details of her biography described in a Jnatadharmakatha story. Similarly, though Vasudeva Krsna often appears as a character in our stories there are only one or two of his doings which
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
