Jains Today in World

Author(s): Pirre Paul AMIEL
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 71

40 : JAINS TODAY IN THE WORLD Śreyāmşa, Viamala, Ananta, Dharma, śānti, Kunthu, Ara, Malli, Nami, Nemi and Pārsva.
Jain tradition attributes to all the Tīrthankara a height that decreases from the first to the last and the same for the length of their lives, but these are almost mythical details that we will not discuss further. All of them also have two guardian deities, for some Digambara, both males (yakşa) for some other Digambara, and for Svetāmbara males and females (yaksa or yakşi) both. There are some differences between the Svetāmbara and Digambara with regard to the names of these "yaksa" and "yaksi".
As concern the “yakşa” and “yakşī”, we will speak of them in the second part of this chapter. Let us mention that each Tīrthankara is said to have obtained perfect knowledge after a long meditation under a tree: a fig-tree (banyan) for Rsabha, a teak (sāla) for Mahāvīra, an "aśoka” for Malli, a “bakula” for Nami, etc.
We see too that, according to the sacred Jain scriptures, all the Tīrthankara were of royal or noble origin. Their births and lineages have permitted Jainism to benefit of high patronages that greatly promoted it, during centuries, in India.
It is also said that all the Tīrthankara were born into the Indian
of the “ksatriya" and not the "brahmin'one. That greatly helped Mahāvīra in his strong opposition to the “brahmins” for to their numerous and elaborated rituals, their dogmatism and their increasing animal sacrifices. This undoubtedly gave roots to the legend of the transfer of Mahāvīra's embryo and of the aversion of Jainism to clergymen or priests. The ill-starred experiences, in medieval times, of the “Bhattāraka” among the Digambara and of the “Yati” among the Svetāmbara, strengthen this principle.
Apart from some branches mentioned in the former chapter, most Jains worship their Tīrthankara in the forms of images or statues. This type of cult seems to have taken time. We have not heard of Mahāvīra worshipping images of his predecessors. Adepts have since made such