16th Jaina Studies Workshop
|  | Statue of "Cāritracakravartī" Ācārya Śāntisāgara "Dakṣiṇa" (1872-1955), "Digambara Jaina Siddhakṣetra" Kunthalagirī, P.Flügel 2012 |
Book of Abstracts:
Phases 1-4 Type Biographic Verses in the Āvaśyaka-Niryukti as the Main Sources for Later Biographies of Tīrthaṅkaras, etc. in Jainism
Bansidhar Bhatt (Ahmedabad, University of Münster)
Biographies of Mahāvīra (Mv) and Ṛṣabha in the Āvaśyaka-Niryukti (ĀvN) start from their own dvāra-gāthās with some 1-9 simple life-events: like birth, (birth) celebration, childhood, growth, marriage, children, renunciation, kevala-jñāna, etc. They are classified as Phase 1 type verses (vss.). Other than the Phase 1 type verses are concerned with events of all the 24 tīrthaṅkaras. Phase 2 type ĀvN verses describe doctrinal themes taught by the first and the last tīrthaṅkaras, and other doctrinal themes taught by the 2-23 tīrthaṅkaras. Such verses show an impact of the Bṛhat-Kalpa-Bhāṣya verses. Phase 3 type ĀvN verses present a variety of items including some doctrinal views, each to be distributed among the 24 tīrthaṅkaras. Also, Phase 3 type verses show different stages of development. In their last stage, we notice many strange and fantastic life-events of the tīrthaṅkaras. Phase 3 and Phase 4 types of verses are of a similar nature. Phase 3 type verses are traced in the ĀvN text only. Those traced outside the ĀvN are, for the sake of brevity, called Phase 4 type biographic verses. Almost all biographies of individual tīrthaṅkaras, etc., that are found in the āgamic literature or composed by Jaina monkauthors borrow their life-events from Phases 3-4 and their pattern (events, their order, etc.) from Phase 1. Students of biographic literature should also study Phases 1-4 in order to show impacts of the latter on the former, and to sort out new elements or development in later biographies.
Biographies of Ṛṣabha and the Rise of Śatruñjaya
Eva De Clercq (University of Ghent, Belgium)
Tba
Singing the Praises of the Bhaṭṭārakas: Hagiographic Writings on North-Indian Digambara Pontiffs
Tillo Detige (University of Ghent, Belgium)
Clothed, sedentary bhaṭṭārakas stood at the helm of the Digambara monastic lineages from at least the 13th century CE, and well into modern times. These bhaṭṭārakas are well remembered for their part in the consecration of images and the collection and preservation of manuscripts. As such, they are often depicted as clerics who guarded the Digambara tradition during the Muslim period, but were lax and defective vis-à-vis the ascetic ideal of the Digambara muni. When turning to the primary sources, however, what immediately speaks forth from these is their contemporaries’ devotion towards them.
This paper presents some unstudied hagiographic material related to the bhaṭṭārakas. The vernacular, eulogistic bhaṭṭāraka gītas sing the praises of individual bhaṭṭārakas with stock epithets we might usually expect to be used for fully initiated ascetics. The same is true for paṭṭāvalīs and gurvāvalīs, which construct the historical continuity of the monastic tradition in linking the bhaṭṭārakas with earlier ācāryas in extended lineages. Numerous surviving bhaṭṭāraka chatrīs (commemorative pavilions) and caraṇa pādukās (footprint carvings) furthermore bear witness to the worship of deceased bhaṭṭārakas. The latter is confirmed by textual sources, i.e. Sanskrit pūjā texts for the eight-fold worship of bhaṭṭāraka pādukās.
While contemporary descriptions mostly offer limited appreciations of the bhaṭṭārakas, we thus find that in their own times they were invested with the full charisma of the Digambara ascetic. At least some individual bhaṭṭārakas seem to have been ascetically inclined and active. More broadly, the devotion to the bhaṭṭārakas might have preserved and perpetuated the ascetic ideal and the laity’s devotion towards it during a period when
only very few munis were roaming.
The Lifes of the Tīrthaṅkaras in Illustrated Jaina Manuscripts
Saryu Doshi (Mumbai)
The lecture will discuss the differences in approach of the Digambara and Śvetāmbara sects in illustrating the lives of the Tīrthaṅkaras.
Why Narrating the Same Biography Twice? Tiviṭṭhu, Ayala and Āsaggīva in Saṅghadāsa’s Vasudevahiṇḍī
Anna Esposito (University of Würzburg, Germany)
The biographies of Tiviṭṭhu, Ayala and Āsaggīva - the first vāsudeva, baladeva and prativāsudeva in our descending world period - are told twice in Saṅghadāsa’s Vasudevahiṇḍī (ca. 5th cent. CE). While the first version (Vh.275.9-278.30) focusses on Āsaggīva and his enmity with his former minister Harimaṃsu, the second version (Vh.310.5-323.24) lays its emphasis on Tiviṭṭhu and Ayala, especially on their further spiritual development. Through the story of Tiviṭṭhu’s son-in-law Amiyatea, this narrative is embedded in the comprehensive account of the former births of Santi, Bharaha’s 16th tīrthaṃkara and at the same time 5th cakravartin. After comparing the two versions as well as their narrative embedding I will try to show that - in the context of the Vasudevahiṇḍī - there is good reason to refer twice to this same story.
Johannes Klatt’s Jaina Onomasticon
Peter Flügel & Kornelius Krümpelmann (SOAS)
For at least ten years, until he fell severely ill, the German Indologist Johannes Klatt (1852–1903) worked on the “Jaina Onomasticon”, his magnum opus. He never recovered to complete his task and left behind 5338 pages, handwritten in English. To this day the manuscript, kept in the library of the Asia-Africa-Institute in Hamburg, is unpublished. It is good news for every scholar interested in the post-canonical history of Jaina literary, social and religious traditions, that a print edition of Klatt’s encyclopaedic work is currently in preparation at SOAS, Centre of Jaina Studies (in 2012 the project of preparing the publication of the “Onomasticon” was awarded a three-year research grant by the Leverhulme Trust). It is hoped that an expandable electronic version of the text can be made available in the near future as well. In his manuscript Klatt gives in alphabetical order a list of all proper names of Jaina authors, texts, gacchas, place names, etc. he could gather from primary sources (colophons of manuscripts) and secondary sources (catalogues, monographs, articles), adding to each entry relevant biographical and bibliographical data. The paper will discuss the position of Klatt’s work in the field of Jaina Studies in 19th century, give a general overview of the sources he used, and describe his method of organizing and presenting the vast material he had collected.
Biography of the Jaina Monk Jambūvijaya
Sin Fujinaga (Miyakonojo, Miyazaki, Japan)
The Jaina monk Jambūvijaya (1923-2009) was a world famous scholar in the field of Jaina Studies as well as in Indian logic, while enjoying enormous popularity among the Jains, especially among those in Gujarat. Few scholars know how popular Jambūvijaya was with lay persons and lay Jains may understand his ability as a scholar only vaguely. In this paper I would like to show both sides of him by describing some important events in his life.
Great Nun as Mother: Hagiography and the Biography of Divyaprabhāśrījī
Whitney Kelting (Northeastern University, Boston)
In the telling of Jain nun’s life stories, the models of biography ready-to-hand - those of monks - are mimicked and reconfigured to adapt to the particulars of the gendered experience of Jain women. Laywomen’s biographies struggle with finding a space within the Jain discourse where biographies glorify the Jinas and other religious exemplars, honour important Jain monks or highlight great layman donors and modify the layman’s biographies with sati discourse. The biography at the centre of this talk was written to commemorate Divyaprabhāsrījī’s fiftieth year as a Jain nun. In this biography, the hagiographic narrative conforms closely to the ideal renouncer’s life and therefore the hagiographies of exemplary Jain monks serve as particularly productive models for comparison. Because of the relative conformity to the monks’ biographical template for Divyaprabhāsrī’s life, we can track the ways in which her virtue is constituted in gendered ways stressing her motherly care of her nun followers and lay women.
Rāmacandrasūri (1897-1992): A Life Between Consistent Asceticism and Political Controversies
Andrea Luithle-Hardenberg (University of Tübingen, Germany)
As the founder of one of the largest Tapā Gaccha samudayas Rāmacandrasūri belongs to the most influential Jaina Ācāryas of the 20th century. In 2012 the 100th anniversary of his initiation as a Jain sādhu was commemorated in splendid festivals in Gujarat and Mumbai. The paper presents findings of a recent ethno-historical research, including interviews with Rāmacandrasūri’s contemporaries and published and unpublished grey literature sources of the Tapā Gaccha. Accordingly, Rāmacandrasūri’s earlier years were determined by strict asceticism. In contrast to that the later parts of his biographies are linked to almost all crucial controversial issues which were and are still publicly raised within the Jaina community and vis-à-vis external parties during the last 80 years. The controversies partly refer to widely acclaimed ritual issues which are mainly significant within the Jain community, such as the astrological determination of festivals within the ritual calendar (pancāṅga), the ritual veneration of senior ascetics (gurupūjā) and the suspension of pilgrimage to Śatruñjaya during the rainy season (cāturmāsa). However, the issues which were discussed by Rāmacandrasūri and his contemporaries also intermingle with rather rarely mentioned political and interreligious conflicts such as his critique of Mohandās Gāndhi’s interpretation and utilization of non-violence (ahiṃsā) for the svarāj movement, the abolition of the goat sacrifice in Ahmedabad’s Bhadrakālī temple during Navrātrī and protests against the legal ban of initiating children into Jaina orders (bāl dīkṣā). In all issues Rāmacandrasūri was supported by influential lay organizations such as the Āṇandajī Kalyāṇajī Peḍhī. The public discussion of these issues contributed considerably to shaping Śvetāmbara community after independence and was/ is continued until today by his successors in the office of the gacchādhipati, Mahodāyasūri, Hembūṣansūri and Puṇyapalsūri. At the same time the grey literature and oral biographies of Rāmacandrasūri are important sources for comprehensively discussing Tapā Gaccha history during the 20th to 21st century, including the political strategies of Jaina Ācāryas in general.
What the lifespans of Ṛṣabha, Bharata, Śreyāṃsa, and Ara can tell us about the History of the Concept of Mount Meru
Ruth Satinsky (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)
The number 84 and its multiples are an important concept in Jaina cosmology. Ṛṣabha and his son Bharata are held to have had lifespans of 8,400,000 pūrvas respectively; Śreyāṃsa 8,400,000 years; and Ara, 84,000 years. In addition, four out of the five Mount Merus to which the fordmakers (tīrthaṅkara) are linked rise 84,000 yojanas above the earth (the fifth and central Meru rises 99,000 yojanas high, and has a base beneath the earth of an additional 1000 yojanas). In a different context, the number 8,400,000 is for Jainas the sum total of conceivable birth-situations (yoni), in which souls may find themselves, over and over, as they circle through saṃsāra. I will propose why I think Ṛṣabha, his son Bharata, and the two other fordmakers’ lifespans, are linked to the number 84 and its multiples, and will argue that the concept of the number 84 and its multiples, which is also found in Ājīvikism and Buddhism, is a concept which originated in the milieu of Greater Magadha, thus providing some evidence that the Brahmanical Mount Meru, rising 84,000 yojanas above the earth, was necessarily a later concept when it was introduced for the first time into Brahmanical literature in the Mahābhārata.
Ṛṣabha and Bharata in Hindu Purāṇas
Renate Söhnen-Thieme (SOAS)
Much has been written how characters and features from the two great Sanskrit epics and the Harivaṃśa were transformed in corresponding works of the Jaina literature and were incorporated in the Universal History of the Jainas Considerably less attention has been given to possible borrowings in the opposite direction, except for two articles by Padmanabh S. Jaini, discussing the adaptation of the Jina Ṛṣabha as an avatāra of Viṣṇu in the Bhāgavatapurāṇa. My paper traces earlier references to Jina Ṛṣabha and his son Bharata in Hindu Purāṇas (especially the Viṣṇupurāṇa, which was an important source for the Bhāgavatapurāṇa) and investigates what might have been their Jaina source.
Lifes' Ends: Jaina Modes of Dying in Ārādhanā Texts
Luitgard Soni (Innsbruck)
Many stories in the Ārādhanā-kathā-kośas pay special attention to the various ways of dying and the crucial hour of death. These stories underline thereby the impact of the last phase of life for the further existences of the soul.
The doctrinal profile of the Jaina view of dying and death is embedded in the Ārādhanā texts, as e.g. in the Bhagavatī-Ārādhanā. The texts reveal the social setting, the monastic disciplines, the ritual structures, the knowledge of the human mind as well as of bodily processes, empathy and persuasive skills. The important function of telling the relevant stories at the right time and place is underpinned.
The stories of the Bṛhatkathākośa, the oldest extant collection of Ārādhanā-kathās, exemplify the implementation of the Jaina doctrines and display various active and passive modes of dying, its endurance and performance. The paper will consider some of the striking aspects of this theme.
A Kharatara Gaccha Monk in the Tapā Gacch Imaginaire: Tapā Gaccha Re-tellings of the Life of Jinaprabhasūri
Steven M. Vose (Florida International University)
Two narratives of the encounter between Sultan Muḥammad bīn Tughluq (r. 1325-1351) and Jinaprabhasūri (ca. 1261-1333 CE), ācārya of the Laghu Śākhā of the Kharatara Gaccha, appear in the monk’s magnum opus, the Vividhatīrthakalpa (‘Chapters on Various Pilgrimage Places’). In these narratives, the sultan grants to Jinaprabhasūri several edicts (farmāns) protecting Jains and Jain pilgrimage places, returns an image of Mahāvīra taken in an earlier military operation, and establishes a quarter in Delhi for Jains complete with a new temple and upāśraya. Jinaprabha claims his success with the sovereign rested on his skills as a poet and debater.
Over the next two centuries, Jinaprabhasūri’s story would be retold several times, first by mendicants of his own lineage, and later by Tapā Gaccha monks. In several Tapā Gaccha narrative collections, his story begins to acquire new elements, detailing his special connection with the goddess Padmāvatī and, especially in the Tapā Gaccha narratives, his ability to effect minor miracles. Far from merely invented narrative elements, these details seem to coincide with a portrait of the monk that emerges when his entire oeuvre is taken into account. As one of the most prolific authors in Kharatara Gaccha history, Jinaprabhasūri composed roughly 100 hymns and 40 other works, including commentaries, works on grammar, poetics, and mendicant conduct, as well as several works on esoteric rituals, mantras, and astrology. Among his hymns one finds several dedicated to goddesses, including Padmāvatī. Jinaprabhasūri’s production became the stuff of legend in the Tapā Gaccha, as a tradition emerged that he gifted 700 of his own hymns to his younger counterpart, Somatilakasūri (1298-1367), claimed to be a goodwill offering between the two mendicant orders. These narratives also included miraculous happenings both in the sultan’s court and elsewhere, but also featured Jinaprabha’s confession to his Tapā counterpart that his involvement with the sultan had compromised his ability to keep the strict vows of a Jain monk.
This paper examines the fifteenth-sixteenth-century Tapā Gaccha narratives about the Kharatara Gaccha monk Jinaprabhasūri (1261-1333 CE) to argue that the order’s interest in him was a locus for discussing several aspects of mendicancy and leadership that the Tapā order faced throughout the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. In these narratives, we can follow the Tapā order’s emergence as the leading gaccha, having supplanted the Kharatara order in Gujarat as the most influential and numerous mendicant order after the demise of the Delhi Sultanate state and the establishment of an independent sultanate in Gujarat. Jinaprabhasūri’s narrative would provide the narrative structure for understanding Hīravijayasūri’s success with the Mughal emperor Akbar. It is only after the Tapā success in the Mughal court that Jinaprabhasūri’s story fades into obscurity, dealt its final blow when the Tapā polemicist Dharmasāgara excoriates the Kharatara monk and Tapā Gaccha monks who spoke favourably of him.