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Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c10.s2: Bhāgavatism and Jainism

Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c10.s2

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Bhāgavatism and Jainism

c10.s2.1

The Jainas represent Vāsudeva as a near relation of the Arhat Ariṣṭanemi.¹ They include Vāsudeva and Baladeva among the sixty-three Śalākā-Purushas.² The Śalākā-Purushas are the great personages who, according to the belief of the Jainas, have, since the present order of things, risen in the history of the world, and directed or influenced its course; they comprise the twenty-four Tīrthankaras, the twelve Chakravartins, the nine Vāsudevas, the nine Baladevas, and the nine Prativāsudevas. The first Jaina Upāṅga called the Aupapātika Sūtra mentions Baladevā and Vāsudevā, and cites two ancient Ślokas or verses where eight Kshatriya teachers are mentioned, sharply distinguished from eight Brāhmaṇa parivvāyā (wandering friars) Among the former we find the name of Bala Rāma. The Ślokas containing the lists of teachers are given below:—

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¹ Uttarādhyayana, Lec. xxii.

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² Hemachandra's Triṣhashṭiśalākā-purusha-charita; Rādhākānta Deva's Sabdakalpadruma, p. 1492; Jacobi's Sthavirāvalicharita, p. 3; Barth, Religions of India, p. 167 n.

c10.s2.4

“ tattha khalu ime aṭṭha māhaṇa-
parivvāyā bhavanti, taṁ jahā :
Kuṇṇe ya Karakaṇṭe ya
Ambaḍe ya Parāsare
Kaṇhe Dīvāyaṇe ceva
Devagutte ya Nārae ;

c10.s2.5

*tattha khalu ime aṭṭha khattiya-* *parivvāyā bhavanti, taṃ jahā :*

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*Silāī Masim hāre* *Naggaī Bhaggaī tiya* *Videhe Rāyā Rāme Bale tiya.*¹

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¹ *Aupapātika Sūtra*, edited by Dr. Ernst Leumann, pp. 61, 69-70.

c10.s2.8

It will be remembered in this connection that in the *Bhīṣma Parvan* of the *Mahābhārata* the *Sāttvata-vidhi* (the code of the Sātvatas or Bhāgavatas) is said to have been sung by Saṅkarṣaṇa (Balarāma) :

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*Sāttvataṃ vidhim āsthāya*
*gītaḥ Saṅkarṣaṇena yaḥ*
*Dvāparasya yugaśyānte*
*ādau Kaliyugasya cha.*

c10.s2.10

In the *Ahirbudhnya Saṃhitā*, too, the original *Śāstra* of the *Pañcharātra* sect “which, at the beginning of the golden age, came down from heaven like a thunder-clap, dispelling all inner darkness,” is stated to have been proclaimed by Saṅkarṣaṇa.²

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² Schrader, *Introduction to the Pāñcarātra and the Ahirbudhnya Saṃhitā*, pp. 15, 108.

c10.s2.12

In the *Chhāndogya Upanishad* Ghora Āṅgirasa while instructing his disciple Kṛṣṇa Devakīputra placed certain moral states on an equality with certain parts of the sacrificial procedure. Among these moral states *Ahiṃsā* is specially mentioned. The *Ahiṃsā* doctrine foreshadowed here was taken up by the Jainas.

c10.s2.13

In the opinion of Dr. Keith¹ “the (Jaina) faith is deeply permeated with Hindu influences, and especially with influences of Kṛṣṇa worship.” “Of this there can be no more striking proof than the taking over of the Kṛṣṇa legend and its reworking in a tedious shape; its importance is seen in the fact that the legend of Mahāvīra’s birth is entirely derived from that of Kṛṣṇa’s birth.”²

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¹ J.R.A.S., 1915, pp. 842-843.

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² Cf. Jacobi, Jaina Sūtras, Part I, S.B.E.. Vol. XXII, pp. 218-230, and Viṣṇu Purāṇa, v, 1, 72 *et seq*.

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‘Dr. Macnicol observes :³ “in its original democratic character and in its universalism, we have two notes of theism which the sect of Mahāvīra may have learned from such worship as that of Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa.”

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³ Indian Theism, p. 63.

Cites (3)