Absent Lord: Conversion and Supernatural Beings

In parallel with a similar pattern that we have seen already in the story of Saciya Mata, in these tales the work of conversion is sometimes associated with the "Jainizing" or taming of non-Jain supernaturals. As Granoff points out (1989b: 201, 206), the ascetic in these tales often works his conversion miracle through the agency of a clan deity, usually a goddess, a theme that is certainly present in the Osiya materials surveyed earlier. "In these stories," Granoff points out, "monks are often powerful because they can command a goddess to do their bidding and aid their devotees or potential devotees" (ibid.: 201-2).^[1] Granoff's survey of clan histories discloses another common pattern, that of the vyantar who is in fact a deceased kinsperson and who has come back to trouble his or her former relatives; the malignant spirit is then pacified by the monk and becomes a lineage deity (ibid.: 211). Most of these ideas are also present in the Osval materials I have surveyed.

For example, converts-to-be sometimes suffer from demonic possession. An alternative story about the Bhansali clan (this one from Nahta and Nahta 1978: 36) again focuses on King Sagar. One day a brahm raksas (a kind of demon belonging - the demon himself says in the story - to the "vyantar jati ") afflicted his mother.^[2] Nothing could induce it to leave her. Finally, in the year 1139, Acarya Jindattsuri arrived in Lodrava and was asked to remove the demon. When he ordered it to go, it responded by saying, "The king was my enemy in a previous birth; I taught him about nonviolence, but this wicked devotee of the goddess wouldn't accept it and killed me. After I died I became a brahm raksas and I have come to destroy his family in revenge." The monk taught the demon Jain doctrine and made his vengeful feelings subside. The demon then left the mother, and Sagar became a Jain in the bhandsal as before.

In fact, the Bhansali clan seems to have had special problems with vengeful supernatural beings. According to another story (Bhansali 1982: 158-59; see also Granoff 1989b: 214-15), there was once an inhabitant of Patan named Ambar who hated the Khartar Gacch. When Jindattsuri's disciple came to Ambar's house to obtain food and water for the guru's first meal after a fast, Ambar tried to kill Jindattsuri by providing poisoned water. At Jindattsuri's instructions, a Bhansali layman, who happened to be in the community hall at the time, mounted a hungry and thirsty camel to fetch a special ring that would remove the poison. When the ring was brought and dipped in the water, the influence of the poison abated. Then this entire unfortunate matter became known throughout the city, and the king summoned Ambar, who admitted his guilt. The king gave the order for Ambar's execution, but Jindattsuri had the order cancelled. After that, Ambar began to be called "hatyara" (murderer), and upon his death he became a vyantar and began to create various kinds of disturbances (updravs).^[3] He vowed that he would not become peaceful until the Bhansali line was destroyed. In the end, Jindattsuri thwarted this vyantar by waving his ogha (broom) over the Bhansali family ("parivar," but apparently referring here to the entire Bhansali clan). This is how the Bhansalis acquired their reputation of being second to none in their devotion to gurus (guru bhakti, and referring specifically to devotion to the Dadagurus).

An example of the involvement of a goddess in the origin of a clan is provided by the story of the Ranka-Vanka clan (Nahta and Nahta 1978: 38-9). The two protagonists, Ranka and Vanka, were descended from Gaud Ksatriyas, who had migrated from Saurashtra; they lived in a village near Pali where they were farmers. One day Acarya Jinvallabhsuri came and declared that Ranka and Vanka were destined to have an encounter with a snake within a month, and that they should refrain from working in the fields. Despite the warning they continued to go to the fields, when finally, as they were returning one evening, they stepped on the tail of a snake. The angry snake pursued them, and they had to take refuge in a temple of the goddess Candika (a meat-eating Hindu goddess) where they slept that night. In the morning, they saw the snake still lingering near the temple. They then began to praise the goddess in hopes of eliciting her aid. The goddess said, "Because of the sadguru 's (Jinvallabhsuri's) teaching I have given up meat eating and the like, and you people must give up farming and become the 'true lay Jains' (sacce sravaks) of Jinvallabhsuri." She called off the snake, told them that they would acquire svarnsiddhi (the ability to make money), and sent them home. Later, Acarya Jindattsuri visited that place and Ranka and Vanka began to attend his sermons. They were "influenced," became pious lay Jains, and later prospered greatly.

The Jain goddess Padmavati is important to the story of the origin of the Phophliya clan (ibid.: 49-50). The story begins with King Bohitth of Devalvada, who founded the Bothara clan (a very well known Osval clan) after being converted to Jainism by Jindattsuri. At the time of his conversion, his eldest son, whose name was Karn, remained a non-Jain and succeeded his father to the throne. Karn, in his turn, had four sons. One day he was returning from a successful plundering expedition when he was attacked and killed. His queen then took her sons to her father's place at Khednagar. One night the goddess Padmavati appeared to her in a dream, and said, "Tomorrow because of the coming to fruition of your powerful merit, Sri Jinesvarsuriji Maharaj will come here; you should go to him and accept Jainism, and you will obtain every kind of happiness." The four sons all became Jains. They made an immense amount of money in business, and were assiduous in doing the puja of the Tirthankar. At the instruction of Jinesvarsuri, they sponsored a pilgrimage to Satrunjaya, and while on the way they distributed rings and platters full of betel nuts (pungiphal) to the other pilgrims. For this reason the eldest son's descendants become known as the Phophliya clan.

Even the Hindu god Siva was once used by a Jain monk as an instrument of conversion (ibid.: 42). It seems that the Pamar king of Ambagarh, whose name was Borar, wanted to see Siva in his real form, but was never successful.^[4] When he heard about Acarya Jindattsuri he went to him and asked if he could arrange such an encounter. The great monk said that he would arrange the vision, but only if the king agreed to do whatever Siva instructed him to do. The king agreed, and went with the monk to a Siva temple. Standing before the linga (the phallic representation of Siva), the monk concentrated the king's vision, and amidst a cloud of smoke trident-bearing Siva himself appeared. Siva said, "O King, ask, ask (for a boon)!" The king said, "O Lord, if you are pleased, then give me moks (liberation)." Siva said, "That, I'm afraid, I don't have in my possession. If there's anything else you want, then say so, and I'll give it to you, but if you desire eternal nirvan, then you must do what this Guru Maharaj says." After the god left, the king worshiped Jindattsuri's feet and asked how to obtain liberation. The monk imparted the teachings of Jainism, and the king accepted Jainism in 1058. His descendants are the clan called Borar, so named for their royal ancestor.