Jasahar Chariu

Author(s): Pushpadant, Parshuram Lakshman Vaidya, Hiralal Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 9

JASAHARACARIU
(See K. V. Raghavachar, Jannana Yasodhara-carita, especially its Appendices, 3rd ed. Mysore 1949 ). This is quite in consonance with the spirit of the region and age that in the hands of local priests, patronised by Bhatļārakas, even great philosophical concepts like the Karma doctrine were absorbed in rituals like the Karma-dahanavidhāna. This aspect of Jainism needs further investigation especially in the South. Thus there is no surprise that to counteract bloody oblations before fierce deities like Durgã the touching tale of Yasodhara was used and also popularised as a part of Vrata or Nompi to be observed by the laity.
Even before the Jasa haracariu of Puşpadanta was printed, the Jaina laity have evinced greater interest in it (than in his other works ), and even made attempts to adapt the story to suit their taste without violating the basic structure. Puşpadanta composed it at Mänyakheta some time in the seventees of the 10th century A. D.
Though no full census of the Mss. of the Jasaharacariu is taken, whatever Mss. have been used by Dr. P. L. Vaidya for its first edition clearly show that from Mányakheta they have travelled a wider area covering Surat, Mandavagada (?),
Toda Fort, Alwar, Karanja and Kolhapur. They show two recensions, the Sena Gapa Group (Shorter Recension ), of which the earliest known Ms. is dated 1333 A. D., and the Balātkāra Gana Group (Longer Recension ) which was expanded in 1308 A. D. The circumstances of this expansion are interesting and already brought to light by Dr. Vaidya : One Visalasāhu, whose family hailed from Pattana, requested the poet Gandharva to fill up what he considered deficient in Puşpadanta's work by adding passages relating to i) the visit of Bhairava to the royal household; ii) the marriage of Jasahara; and iii) the wanderings of various persons through several births. Gandharva did so accordingly and added them at appropriate places. They were read to Vīsala Sahu on the date specified (see IV. 30. 11 ff.) who was then staying at Yoginipura or Delhi.
Gandharva specifies his sources. He mentions Vatsarāja, about whom we do not know anything as yet, and Vásavasena whose Yaśodharcarita in Sanskrit is available to us in Mss. Bhairava described by Gandharva reminds one of Bhairavānanda introduced by Rajasekhara in his Karpūramañjarī : if one is a Kaulācārya, the other praises the Kauladharma. Some of the traits of Kaulācārya are also specified by Devasena in his Bhāvasamgraha (verse No. 182, Manikachandra D. J. Granthamala, Bombay 1921 ). Some of the expressions are common with RājaSekhara's verses. Devasena seems to confuse between Kauladharma and Kapiladharma (Sămkhya system ).
Dr. Devendrakuniar Shastri's survey of Apabhraíśa Mss. records some 37 Mss. (from Nagor, Davalana, Kama, Byavar, Jaipur, Delhi, Hoshiarpur, Ajmer, Mahaviraji, Bhanpura, Udaipur, Poona etc. ) of the Jasaharacariu as against 9 of the Náyakumaracariu. Of the Mahápurāņa he has some 28 entries under Adipurāņa and nearly 40 entries under Uttarapurāņa. There seem to have been very few copies of the entire Mahāpurāņa in one Ms.
There has been in print a Hindi Translation of the Jasaharacariu of which Dr. P. L. Vaidya has taken note by calling it H. It seems to have been printed some time at the beginning of this century. Some of the titles indicate that the Hindi Translator had before him an earlier Sanskrit Tīkā.