Studies in Jain Literature

Author(s): V M Kulkarni
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Page 23

CHARACTER OF JAIN MYTHOLOGY
as in the case of Naravāhanadatta, the son of Udayana and the hero of the Brhat-Kathā. The original meaning appears to be a king, whose chariot-wheel meets no obstacle in his conquests.
With the Buddhists the Cakravartin got associated with a disc, a jewel, which precedes him and procures for him success. He represents the secular authority as the Buddha does the spiritual power. It is said of Buddha '14 tafad'. The Jain idea of a Cakravartin is similar and he is said to win 14 ratnas, including the cakra disc. These ideas are all developments from the popular identification of the cakra with the disc in the hand of Visnu, a solar symbol. There are twelve such universal monarchs in Jain Mythology. They have further created the category of Bharatārdha-cakravartins who rule only half the Bharata country, and who are having the nine Vāsudevas with them.
Scholars have explained the word a n different ways. Wilson considered it to mean 'one who abides in (alla) a large territory called a 'Kern takes afis to mean adefa who rules'. Senart regards him to be one who owns a चक्रवाल while Jacobi thinks that चक्र here stands for the political term मण्डल."
The word Baladeva (also Balabhadra) or Haladhara or Halin is used for the elder step-brother of Nārāyaṇa or Vāsudeva, who is a mighty human king ruling over three parts of the earth. For example, in the story of Räma, Padma (another name of Rāma) is the Baladeva and Laksmana is the Nārāyaṇa or Vasudeva; and Rāvana who is antagonistic to Vāsudeva is called Prativasudeva.
According to one tradition there are 54 great men only, as it does not count the Prativāsudevas in the list of Uttamapurusas'. This tradition is recorded in the Samavāyārgasūtra and Sīlācārya too speaks of 54 great men.
It is to be noted that all these 63 salākāpurusas are "great men” and are bereft of any divine element. In the Hindu Mythology Nārāyana is an epithet of Visnu Krsna and Balabhadra or Baladeva (or Balarāma) is the name of the elder brother of Krsna, Nārāyaṇa is the supreme God and Baladeva too is sometimes regarded as an incarnation of the serpent sesa and sometimes as the eighth incarnation of Visnu. And so also the Hindus regard Rāma as the Nārāyana and Laksmana as the incarnation of Ananta (the serpent Sesa). Now the Jains agree with the Hindus in regarding Krsna as Nārāyana and Balarama as Bala they however, invert their order in the case of Rāma and Lakşmaņa whom they regard as Baladeva and Nārāyana respectively. It appears they deliberately introduced this change for the sake of uniformity-for in the case of Balarāma and Krsna the elder brother is Baladeva and the younger one Nārāyana and it is not unlikely that the name 'Rāma' was to some extent responsible for his being