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Sec. 4. HISTORICAL POSITION OF THE T. S.
16, Vahnilasa 1 and Disavzikāliki. Tas th:m: oft welve cakravartis including Vasudeva and Baladeva also occurs in the Sthāna and samavāya, for instance.
Some features of Kršņa stories in the Jaina canon are reported as follows (1) Only a part of the Kršņa story is incorporated in the form of an inserted tale to serve as an illustration in explaining the Jaina doctrines such as the principle of transmigration, (2) Krşņa, no doubt a mighty king, figures as a secondary personality in the biography of Neminātba, (3) He is not a divinity but a person who suffers karmic consequences, and (4) A mention is made about the exodus of the Pandavas, their populating Pandu -Mathurā in the South and their perishing on the Satruñjaya hill by sallekhana.68 The last feature herein must be speaking of the migration of the Jainas from Mathura to the South. It is also remarked that the name of Nemi and Aristanemi appear in the Yajurveda as well as the Prabhāsa purāna, who are however not at all relevant to Tirtbankara Neminātha. The Hindu purāņis describe R$abha to some extent but not Nemi who appears in the Harivamsa (also the name Aristanemi, occurs) that Daksa gave four daughters to Aristanemi, who gave birth to sixteen sons.69 By the time of the composition of these canonical texts, therefore, tbe Jaipas began to adopt Krşņa theme which was gaining general popularity among the Hindus. The Jaina puranas in the post-canonical stage fully took an advantage of the Hindu epics to propagate the Jaina dogmatics.
The Mahabharata which tells the story of Krşņa is suspected to have existed in the present form by the 4th century A. D., of which original form is speculated to go back to the 4th century B. C. And it is also postulated that there were several traditional Krşņas who were merged into one deity in the later time.70 The early Parasurama worship in western India is indicated by an inscription of the 2nd century A.D., and avatāra worship is amply attested by the growing number of the relevant epigraphic evidences during the 4th through 8th centuries. The Hindu pulāņas of the Gupta age began to accept Buddha as an avatāra of Vişnu. And by absorbing the Buddhist doctrines of ahimsa, vegetarianism, etc., which are more sternly upheld by the Jainas, the Vaişpavas attempted to attract the masses of the followers of Buddhism, that is considered to have played a substantial role for the decline of Buddhism.72 The purāņas like the Bhagavata likewise absorbed the first Jaina Tirthankara Rşabha as one of Vişnu's avatāras. And it should be also remembered that a Rajgir cave of the 4th century A. D. cane to be requisitio..ed by the Vaişnava votaries
All these suggest that during the late canonical and post canonical periods there were aggressive propagation and counterpropagation among the Hindu and the non-Hindu sects including the Jaina school to dominate over the other in order to absorb the followers of the other or in order to defend their own followers to be enticed by the other. The Buddhist adoption of Krsna theme is, it is remarked, rather
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