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APRIL, 1981
and other birds built nests on his creeper-covered body. Serpents hung from his body so that it appeared as if he had a thousand arms, and snakes rising from ant-hills at his feet clasped them like anklets.
An year passed by but Bahubali was unable to obtain kevala-jñāna due to his pride, a form of deluding karma. His father Rsabhanatha, therefore, advised his daughters Brahmi and Sundari, to go and instruct their brother Bahubali, who when approched by the two sisters, realised his mistake and shaking off pride, obtained kevala-jñāna. Earlier Digambara tradition does not refer to the mission of the two sisters. According to it, the defilement of pride and dejection (samklesa) which prevented Bahubali's attainment of the highest knowledge, were removed when, at the end of one year, Bharata came and paid his respects to the sage. The Adipurana of Jinasena describes at length the penance of Bahubali and it would not have missed refering to the mission of the two sisters.
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This great penance of Bahubali inspired both the Svetambara and the Digambara Jainas to worship him and to respect him, in the very act of meditation, surrounded by creepers and standing in the kayotsarga posture. A Brahmanical correspondence to such rigorous austerities would be the sage Valmiki around whom ant-hills and creepers had grown.
Prof. Dalsukh Malvania has discussed the evolution of the story of Bharata and Bahubali.9 He writes: "Jambudvipaprajñapti, one of the Angabahya canoncial texts of the Jainas relates the stories of Rsabha and Bharata in its second and third chapters respectively. And this seems to be the earliest version because the relation of Rsabha and Bharata as father and son is nowhere mentioned. Though Brahmi and Sundari are mentioned as prominent nuns of Rsabha's Sangha, they are
8 The mission of Brahmi and Sundari who advised Bahubali not to sit on an elephant (i.e, pride) is referred to in the Vasudevahindi, 5th lambaka, pp. 187-188, Avasyaka Bhasya, vv. 32-37 quoted in Avasyaka Vrtti of Haribhadra, pp. 152 ff, and the Avasyaka Curni, op. cit. Hemacandra and later Svetambara writers follow suit. But Paumacariyam, 4.54-55, pp. 34-35 merely says that he obtained kevala-jnana just by the force of tapa. Ravisena in his Padmacarita, 4,62-78 pp. 62 ff., follows the Paumacariyam of Vimala. Harivamsa suggests that the defilement due to egoism was removed when Bharata came and paid his respects to the great sage.
7 Adipurana (Bharatiya Jnanapitha ed.), 36.185-86, vol. II. p. 217.
Harivamsa, 11.98-102, p-214; Adipurana, Vasudevahindi, Avasyaka Curni etc show common characteristics in their descriptions of Bahubali's tapa, "Sambodhi, vol. 6. nos. 3-4 (1977-78), pp. 1-11,
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