Jain Journal 2001 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 41

BOOK REVIEW
Arhat Parbra and Dharanendra Nexus-ed by M. A. Dhaky, Lalbhai Dalpatbhad institute of Indology, Ahmedabad, and Bhogilal Leherchand Institute of Indology, Delhi, 1997, pp. xiv + 148 + 67 plates, price Rs. 400.00.
One of the most authoritative books on Parsvanatha and his Dharanendra legend is the present one under review. It is a collection of fourteen articles on different aspects of Arhat Parsvanatha. Apart from editing the book, the editor M.A. Dhaky has also contributed three articles on Arhat Parsva and Dharanendra Nexus: An Introductory Estimation, Arhat Pārsva with Dharanendra in Hymnic Literature and The Tirthas of Parsvanatha in Gujarat. All these articles are full of information and marked by distinctive features. Most of the papers were read at a Seminar organised by B.L. Institute of Indology, Delhi, in 1987. The convener of the Seminar was Professor M.A. Dhaky. "The papers in this volume", says Dr. Jitendra B. Shah in his Foreword, "we feel (and the scholars possibly will endorse), cast fresh light on the problem of the connection between Arhat Pārśva and Nāgarāja Dharanendra and thus push forward the frontiers of research on that score by some measure, besides adding information on several facets of research and issues related with the doctrine, sect, followers and representations of Arhat Pārsva."
The association of Dharanendra with Pārśva was figured in the medieval narrative literature of the Jains. "When Pārsva, after renunciation of worldly life was meditating (on the outskirts of Ahicchatra)", says M.A. Dhaky, "his past enemy, the tapasa-ascetic Kamatha, who after his death was reborn as a vyantara demi-god called Meghamali, conjured up a cloud bust, the fiercely gathering waters were intended to drown the Jina. At this juncture Nagendra Dharana, to whom Pārśva had shown compassion in the former's previous birth as snake, appeared on the scene, lifted up the Jina from the waters, and protectively spread his five-hooded head as a canopy over him." This simple legend which is available in a few versions in the pre-medieval and medieval narrative literature as well as in the sculptural representations could be found in the Nirgrantha literature