Victorious Ones

VICTORIOUS ONES

1

VICTORIOUS ONES Jain Images of Perfection

Phyllis Granoff Editor

Rubin Museum of Art, New York in association with

Mapin Publishing, Ahmedabad

IN HONOR OF MY TEACHER John M. Rosenfield AND

IN MEMORY OF MY MOTHER Dorothy R. Granoff

This catalog is published in conjunction with an exhibition organized and presented by the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, September 28, 2009, through February 15, 2010 Copyright © Rubin Museum of Art 150 West 17th Street, New York, New York 10011 All rights reserved under international copyright conventions.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form (beyond the copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press) or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the Rubin Museum of Art. First published in India in 2009 by Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd. Simultaneously published in the United States of America in 2009 by Grantha Corporation 77 Daniele Drive, Hidden Meadows, Ocean Township, NJ 07712 E: mapinpub@aol.com DISTRIBUTORS NORTH AMERICA

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Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad 380013 India T: 91-79-4022 8228 • F: 91-79-4022 8201 email: mapin@mapinpub.com • www.mapinpub.com ISBN: 978 81 89995 29 4 (Mapin HC) ISBN: 978 0 944142 82 0 (Grantha HC) ISBN: 978 0 944142 83 7 (Grantha PB) LCCN: 2009927147 (HC) LCCN: 2009927148 (PB) Project Director: Helen Abbott Design by Paulomi Shah / Mapin Design Studio Map by Anandaroop Roy Color separations by United Graphics, Singapore Printed and bound by Tien Wah Press, Singapore The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standards for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Captions: Jacket front| A hāī-dvīpa Pa a, the Two-and-a-Half Continents (see pages 262–263) Jacket back| Seated Jina (see pages 172–173) Page 1| Seated Jina (see pages 172–173) Page 2| Standing Jina (see pages 216–217)

Contents Founder’s Statement

6

Letter from the Jain Family

7

Funders and Lenders

8

Acknowledgments

9

Curator’s Preface

10

Map

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1 Victorious Across Eternity: The Lives of the Jain Tīrtha karas

16

Paul Dundas

2 The Cosmic Man and the Human Condition

34

John E. Cort

3 Contemplating the Jain Universe: Visions of Order and Chaos

48

Phyllis Granoff

4 The Mathematics of the Jain Cosmos

64

Kim Plofker

5 Lokākāśa and Lokadhātu: A Comparison of Jain and Buddhist Cosmology

70

Padmanabh S. Jaini

6 Sacred Place and Structured Space: Temple Architecture and Pilgrimage in Jainism

90

Julia A. B. Hegewald

7 Icons in the Manifold: Jain Sculpture in Early and Medieval India

110

Sonya Rhie Quintanilla

8 Digambara Narrative Painting of Southern India

128

Robert J. Del Bontà

9 Contemporary Jain Ma ala Rituals

140

John E. Cort

Catalog • Sculpture — Sonya Rhie Quintanilla • Painting — Robert J. Del Bontà

158 221

Glossary

296

Bibliography

298

Index

307

Founder’s Statement

The Jain founders preached a doctrine of radical renunciation from the world that emphasized not only abstinence but also the intrinsic value of all life, from the life of the very smallest creatures that we cannot even see to our own lives. For ordinary men and women, they stressed the importance of living by strict ethical rules that encompass everything we do, from raising our families to conducting business. The Jains practice nonviolence in all aspects of their lives and can serve as a model for us in an increasingly violent world.

As with all Indian religious traditions, salvation comes for the Jains through personal activity alone. They hold that all beings transmigrate through countless lifetimes, ignorantly chasing selfish and therefore, violent pursuits. Only those who have mastered the Jain path perceive reality as it is, while others stumble in semidarkness.

Jain art presents profoundly moving images of the religion’s founders, the liberated beings who taught the Jain doctrine, and as we look on them, we are reminded of the Jain teachings. Jains also created fabulous cosmological diagrams that function as meditative guides for seekers. Beguiling in their complexity and beauty, these cosmographs can be the starting point for a contemplation of the Jain understanding of the nature of existence and the importance of nonviolence and spiritual development.

The Jains have given the world a corpus of tremendously beautiful art, which I have loved since I began collecting many years ago. I am pleased that Phyllis Granoff, a brilliant scholar and dear friend, agreed to curate an exhibition on Jain art and put together this terrific catalog. The Jains continue to teach that right conduct includes giving away part of one’s wealth, in good times as well as bad. We might all aspire to learn something from them as we contemplate their art.

Donald Rubin New York City

Letter from the Jain Family

Jai Jianndra Jainism is one of the ancient religions of the world. It began in prehistoric India with Lord abha, and has continued into modern times with Lord Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Tirthankara (or Supreme Leader) of our current time cycle, who expounds the teachings of Jainism. The main principle of Jainism is ahimsa (or nonviolence), and the religion revolves around this principle in many shapes and forms—violence not only in our actions but also in our thoughts and speech. Jainism is not a widespread religion in modern times, partly because its principle of ahimsa makes it difficult to follow in our modern day-to-day lives.

Mahatma Gandhi based his life on the Jain principle of ahimsa. As an example of his practice, he kept his worldly possessions to a bare minimum, because each item was created by some form of violence to another life form. He would use each pencil until he could not hold it in his hand because he knew that each pencil involved cutting a portion of a tree. He also embodied the Jain principle of understanding the point of view of the other person, and accommodating that view as much as possible. He believed in the motto of “Live and Let Live.”

Donald Rubin had a vision of presenting an exhibition of Jain art at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City. Our family thought it would be a great idea, not only to showcase the ancient Jain art but to bring awareness to the ancient religion and its universal principles. We are proud to help sponsor this exhibition: Victorious Ones: Jain Images of Perfection.

Now we are at the stage of making the dream become reality. This exhibition will open on September 18, 2009, and remain on view until February 15, 2010, at the Rubin Museum of Art. A fully illustrated catalog, with contributions by major Jain scholars led by Phyllis Granoff, will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.

We are looking forward to viewing the great works of ancient Jain Art and learning more about this peaceful religion. Jains believed in creating beautiful temples, places not only to worship but also to enjoy serene and beautiful spaces. They also believed in creating beautiful works of religious art to place in those temples— some of which we will have the opportunity to see at the Rubin Museum of Art. God bless all who made this possible.

Regards, Suman Jain with Sital Jain, Bobby and Carola Jain, and Vinny Jain

Funders and Lenders

Victorious Ones: Jain Images of Perfection is made possible by a lead gift from Sital and Suman Jain and family.

Additional gifts and grants were received from Bina and Navin Kumar Jain and the Rubin-Ladd Foundation. Promotional support was provided by the Pandya Jain Family Foundation.

Lenders Asia Society Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection Dr. Siddharth Bhansali Collection Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Birmingham Museum of Art Brooklyn Museum Collection of Amita and Purnendu Chatterjee Ethnographic Museum, Antwerp Collection of Kapoor Galleries, Inc. Collection of Bina and Navin Kumar Jain The Metropolitan Museum of Art Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University New Orleans Museum of Art Philadelphia Museum of Art Private American Collections Private Collection Private Collection, London Museum Rietberg, Zurich Rubin-Ladd Foundation, Ester R. Portnow Collection of Asian Art Collection of Shelley and Donald Rubin Collection of Gail Binney Sterne Thomas Colville Fine Art Yale University Art Gallery 8

Acknowledgments

There are many people whom I would like to thank, beginning with Donald Rubin, who first conceived the idea of a Jain exhibition and whose encouragement and support have been a constant inspiration to me. The early and generous contribution to the project from the family of Sital and Suman Jain ensured that it could go forward and include a publication with contributions from some of the world’s best scholars in the field. I want to thank the outstanding staff at the museum, in particular, Martin Brauen, Chief Curator; Helen Abbott, Publisher; Becky Bloom, Assistant Curator; and John Monaco, Exhibitions Preparator. Many others at the museum and Rubin resources made contributions large and small, and they include: Vincent Baker, Kavie Barnes, Michelle Bennett, Louise Brooks, Amy Bzdak, Helen Chen, Marilena Christodoulou, Dudu Etzion, Alisha Ferrin, Deborah Fisher, Tracey Friedman, Alex Gardner, Cate Griffin, Sophie Hawkins, Jenny Hung, Asha Kaufman and all of the Guides and Docents, Jonathan Kuhr, Neil Liebman, Melissa Mates, Eline Maxwell, Tim McHenry, Shane Murray, Anne-Marie Nolin, Aoife Pacheco, Bruce Payne, Andrea Pemberton, Christine Pigott, Alanna Schindewolf, Brian Schneider, Patrick Sears, Marcos Stafne, Taline Toutounjian, Katherine Eirene Ulrich, and Rachel Perera Weingeist.

Of course, the exhibition and the catalog would have been impossible without the generosity and cooperation of the lenders of objects and images. They are listed separately; however, I must note Dr. Siddharth Bhansali, whom I would like to thank not only for his generosity in lending many pieces to this exhibition but also for sharing his knowledge of Jain art with me. Many of the suggestions that he made helped shape my vision for this exhibition.

John Cort and Paul Dundas, who also wrote essays for the volume, were heroic in their readiness to answer my questions, and I have benefited tremendously from their vast knowledge of Jainism. Sonya Quintanilla generously shared with me her expertise and insights from her experience as a curator. Suman Jain became a friend, who shared with me her personal thoughts on Jainism. Robert Del BontĂ , Julia Hegewald, Padmanabh Jaini, and Kim Plofker also contributed their considerable scholarship to the catalog.

John Eskenazi offered his advice and support. Finally, I owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to John Rosenfield, who, I am sure, never imagined that I would still be coming to learn from him some forty years after I first became his student. For his generosity, his knowledge, his guidance, I will be forever grateful.

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Curator’s preface

Jainism is an ancient Indian religion, at least a generation older than Buddhism, with which it has much in common. At its heart are an ethic of nonviolence, a respect for all living beings, and a belief in the existence of a permanent soul, whose true nature is obscured by an individual’s accumulated karma. The goal of Jain religious practice is ultimately to end the painful cycle of rebirths (sam.sāra) and attain liberation from all suffering. This is done by the practice of asceticism and the careful elimination of the passions that lead us astray.

When all the obstructions have been removed and the influx of new ones prevented, the soul in its pure state is freed from bondage.

The Jain community is divided into two groups: monks and nuns, who have renounced the world and practice stringent austerities; and laymen and women, who remain in everyday life and observe the vows ordained for householders. While liberation is possible only for those who have renounced the world, lay devotees earn merit by supporting the monks and by donating temples and images, and throughout history wealthy Jain merchant families have been the mainstay of the religious community. Jain monastics eventually formed two separate groups: the Śvetāmbaras, whose monks wear white robes; and the Digambaras, whose monks reject even the possession of monastic robes and go about naked. While Jain communities once flourished in most parts of India, today Jains are most numerous in the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan in western India, Madhya Pradesh in central India, Maharashtra in the Deccan, and Karnataka in the south.

The Jinas All Jains pay homage to the founders of the faith, who are called Jinas (Conquerors) and also Tīrtha karas (a term that has been interpreted to mean both “Founders of the Tīrtha, the fourfold Jain Community” and “Makers of the Ford that gives safe passage across the waters of worldly existence”). Jains believe in a series of time periods of descending prosperity. There have been twenty-four Jinas in our present time cycle, the last of whom was Mahāvīra, an older contemporary of the historical Buddha Śākyamuni, according to most scholars. The twenty-four Jinas of the present cycle—only two of whom scholars agree were historical figures—have been liberated from worldly existence and dwell in a special realm reserved for perfected beings. Nonetheless, they are accessible to worshipers in the here and now through their teachings and their images—although certain groups reject image worship. The Jain universe is a complex structure of multiple continents and encircling oceans; even now there are said to be other Jinas, who continue to preach the Jain doctrine in distant lands beyond the reach of most mortals living in our part of the universe. Prayers are also addressed to these Jinas and their images in sacred shrines. The 10

Tīrtha karas, or Jinas, are the focus of the exhibition organized in conjunction with the publication of this catalog; they are sculpted in stone, cast in bronze, and painted. The presence of the Jina creates a uniquely Jain sacred space, and we also display maps that depict the vast Jain cosmos and the distant worlds where Jinas still dwell and paintings that portray the earthly temples and pilgrimage places that the twenty-four Jinas of our age sanctified by their presence.

Jain imagery and doctrine The art forms created for the Jains have reflected basic aesthetic principles shared with Buddhists and Hindus. In this respect this publication and exhibition offer the visitor an overview of some of the highest moments of the Indian artistic tradition as a whole. But Jain art, like Jain literature, also developed its own distinctive presence, both in its iconography and in stylistic character. Medieval hymnists often sang of the purity of the Jinas and their absolute freedom from passion and anger. In contrast to Hindu deities, the hymnists stress, the Jinas hold no weapons, for they are freed from anger; theirs is the path of total nonviolence. Unlike the Hindu gods, the Jinas are never accompanied by a spouse, for they have left behind sensual pleasures. For one hymnist, the southern Indian Digambara monk Padmanandin (ca. eleventh century CE), the highly polished stone or the shining metal of the Jina images serves as a metaphor for the absolute purity of the liberated being. Padmanandin describes a worshiper waving a lamp in front of an image, its flames reflecting off the figure’s chest, like the blazing fire of the Jina’s meditation, which has destroyed every last trace of bad karma. When the devotee makes an oblation of unblemished grains of rice, it is to an image of the Jina, “who is unblemished by the objects of the senses that lie in wait to deceive ordinary mortals.”

The stiff upright standing pose of the Jinas (the Conquerors) vividly demonstrates the belief that they have been victorious over obstacles within, unmoved by objects of the senses —although they have not been indifferent to the fate of humankind. Often large, such standing images convey an impression of solid strength and are the visual counterpart of the poet’s metaphor that the Jina could no more be moved by the passions than the cosmic Mount Meru could be shaken by a breeze. Images of the Jina absorbed in meditation might be considered the perfect visual expression of this final verse of Padmanandin’s poem, “Arhat, noble one, the monk Padmanandin rejoices in your great virtues. Well do I know that you do not need my worship, for you have attained everything that is to be attained.

And yet we worship you out of our own need to find salvation. The peasant plows his field for the crops that he will harvest for himself and not for the sake of the king.”

The Jina’s quest for spiritual perfection was also a quest to aid all living beings. The stories of the lives of the Jinas, depicted in illustrated manuscripts such as the ones illustrated here and shown in the exhibition, remind us that the Jinas’ pursuit of liberation was also an act of supreme compassion, for having attained omniscience, the Jinas share their salvific knowledge with living beings from different realms of rebirth. At their enlightenment, gods, animals, and humans crowd into a divine preaching assembly, or samavasara a, to hear the Jinas preach. The Jinas establish the Jain tīrtha, the community of monks and nuns and lay men and women who continue to cherish the teaching. Inspired by the Jain 11

teachings, those who have renounced the world strive for ultimate liberation, and with lay men and women, work to alleviate the sufferings of their fellow beings. As another medieval monk-poet, Jasadevasūri, wrote, “A person whose mind is steeped in the teachings of the Jina gravitates towards what is virtuous; such a person feels the suffering of every creature who is in pain.”

The decision to focus this publication and the exhibition on the Jinas was a curatorial decision. The Jain pantheon is rich and complex, and a hint of its diversity may be seen in the attending deities that accompany some of the Jinas in this volume. But it is above all the figure of the Jina that conveys most immediately the central values of Jainism. A fourteenth-century story of the conversion of Haribharda, one of the most famous of all Śvetāmbara monks, makes this clear. According to this story, proud of his own learning, the Brāhma Haribhadra was firmly converted from Hinduism to Jainism when he was taken to a Jain temple and shown the image of the Jina. In his joy, he recited these verses, “His glance ripples with tender waves of compassion, while his face is serene and gentle.

He seems to be the embodiment of tranquility. Everything around him is calm and his body radiates contentment. Surely he is the god of gods, the only one who can destroy birth, old age and death, for no other god in this world looks anything like this.”

Jain sacred spaces For the exhibition, I have conceived of the first area as containing examples of the different kinds of spaces sanctified by the presence of the Jinas. While some of these spaces are easily accessible to ordinary human beings, others lie in distant regions of the vast Jain cosmos. The enormity of the Jain cosmos is suggested by the large painting of the Jain universe in the shape of a man (Cat. No. P 21). The small sector at his waist depicts the only places where humans live and may achieve liberation. Circular in shape, this area comprises three land masses or “continents.” Each ring-shaped continent is surrounded by an ocean.

Humans live in two-and-a-half of these three continents. Being born as a human being has a particular significance in Jainism, for it affords the best opportunity to follow the Jain teachings. This may be one of the reasons why depictions of the human world of two-anda-half continents became so popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The maps of the two-and-a-half continents shown in this section of the exhibition (Cat. Nos. P 21, P 22, P 23, P 24, and P 26) provide details of the rivers, mountains, and even the cities in the various continents. The central continent is called Jambūdvīpa, and Bharata, which contains India, lies at its southern end. This is where the twenty-four Jinas of our time period preached in the past. Mount Meru, the hub of Indian mythic geography, lies at the center of Jambūdvīpa. On the maps can be seen a series of parallel lines to either side of Mount Meru. This is the wonderful land called Mahāvideha, where it is believed several Jinas continue to preach. Visible at the corners of such maps are temples that lie outside the continents depicted, suggesting the existence of Jinas, their sanctuaries and images, even in the remotest regions of the cosmos where humans cannot reach.

Also in the exhibition are maps of a pilgrimage site closer to home, Mount Śatruñjaya in the state of Gujarat (Cat. Nos. P 29, P 30, and P 31). All but one of the twenty-four Jinas of 12

our time period are said to have visited Mount Śatruñjaya and numerous saints achieved liberation there. Part record of a real pilgrimage, part imagined re-creation of an ideal sacred realm, these richly detailed paintings embody the spiritual intensity of those who undertook the arduous pilgrimage to such a holy site.

A very different kind of space sanctified by the presence of the Jina is exemplified by the ritual diagram, or yantra, with the Jina Mahāvīra in the center and a mantra (Cat. Nos. P 35 and P 36). Diagrams like this were given to monks at the conclusion of the ritual through which they were installed in a position of authority in the monastic community. Both the image of the Jina in the center and the words of the mantra empower the diagram with special force. Few examples of these “Vardhamānavidyā pa as,” or “Paintings with the Mantra of Vardhamāna (Mahāvīra),” have survived, and scholarship on the ritual use of yantras and mantras in medieval Jainism is in its infancy.

In the exhibition we have tried to create an intimation of the vast scope and power of the Jain vision of its sacred cosmos, a place where the viewer may encounter the Jinas as they have been represented by devotees across the Indian subcontinent throughout history.

Stone sculpture The earliest stone sculpture in the catalog (Cat. No. S 01) and exhibition, the head of a Jina from Mathura datable to the fifth century CE, reminds us that this holy city located between Delhi and Agra, was a major center of Jainism as early as the first and second centuries before the common era. The faith also flourished at an early date in eastern India—in Bihar, Bengal, and Orissa—and presented here is a black stone image of the first Tīrtha kara, abha (Cat. No. S 02), which was carved under the Pāla dynasty of Bengal at a time when Buddhist imagery was also flourishing in the region. Also included are several standing and seated Jinas from central India (Cat. No. S 04 and S 05), contemporary with the famous Hindu temples at Khajuraho. There is also a standing Jina from Karnataka of the twelfth century (Cat. No. S 13), belonging to the Hoysaŀa dynasty, whose rulers commissioned lushly ornate Hindu temples at Belur and Halebid. Magnificent Jain temples of white marble were erected at Ābū and Ranakpur in Rajasthan and we have a fine thirteenth-century marble frame for an image (Cat. No. S 11).

Bronzes Some of the earliest Indian religious bronze images were made for the Jains. Archaeologists have uncovered Jain bronzes across India—for example in Chausa in Bihar, Hyderabad in the Deccan, Akota in western India, Bhopawar in central India, and Hansi in Punjab.

Because the oldest examples are rarely inscribed and are difficult to date precisely, a comprehensive history of Jain bronzes is yet to be written. We hope, however, that by bringing together many important examples, this project will stimulate studies on the patronage, origins, and contexts of bronze imagery. Later medieval bronzes more often bear inscriptions and thus can be placed more securely within a context. The elaborate bronzes with multiple Jinas and attendant figures presented here (Cat. Nos. S 20, S 21, S 22, and S 27) give ample indication of the growing sophistication of the tradition. A bronze figure from the Cōŀa dynasty in southern India (Cat. No. S 29) rivals in beauty the more 13

familiar Hindu bronzes of the region. Some of the most refined and distinctive works in the history of Indian art were produced for Jain communities.

Paintings In addition to the large paintings of the cosmos and the panoramic scenes of pilgrimage, Jain painting is represented here by several outstanding examples of manuscript illustrations. The earliest Jain manuscripts were done on palm leaf; extant examples do not date before the mid-eleventh century. The manuscript paintings shown here have all been done on paper. The Śvetāmbara Kalpa Sūtra, which describes the lives of the Jinas, was frequently illustrated, and a number of these manuscripts are known from Gujarat and Rajasthan in western India. This “Western Indian Style” of Kalpa Sūtra painting was derived from classical Indian painting as seen in the Ajanta and Bagh Buddhist caves. In the tiny frames available for illustration, however, the brightly colored images were flattened and abstracted in a vital, lively manner. Presented here are several folios from a complete Kalpa Sūtra manuscript dated 1472 CE and made in Patan, Gujarat (Cat. Nos. P 01–P 07). Also included are a number of pages of elegant Kalpa Sūtras from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, also of the fifteenth century (Cat. Nos. P 08, P 09, and P 19). Jaunpur was a center of Jain painting and the Jaunpur manuscripts often used considerable gold. Illustrated narrative painting of legends of the Jinas has continued to the present day, always adjusted to the expectation of new audiences. We include examples of different regional styles (Cat. Nos. P 11 and P 12).

The Kalpa Sūtra was not the only text to be illustrated and included here are examples of an illustrated manuscript that describes the Jain cosmos (Cat. Nos. P 25–P 28).

Digambara manuscript painting is represented in one folio from a private collection (Cat. No. P 15). An important group of Digambara paintings presented comes from Mysore in southern India (Cat. Nos. P 16–P 20). Relatively late in date, these brightly colored paintings depict groups of Tīrtha karas and events in the lives of the Jinas. Similar paintings can be seen adorning the walls of temples today.

Concluding remarks This catalog and related exhibition take their place with others that have been giving the arts of the Jain communities the recognition that they so richly deserve. The essays that precede the catalog entries illuminate different aspects of Jain art and religion. Padmanabh Jaini, John Cort, and I have written on the Jain cosmos, so strikingly depicted in the cosmic maps illustrated here. Kim Plofker has written on the mathematics of the Jain cosmos; several of the maps include numbers and mathematical calculations that she explains in her essay. Paul Dundas discusses the lives of the Tīrtha karas, and Julia Hegewald has written on temple architecture and pilgrimage in Jainism. A second essay by John Cort discusses contemporary Digambara ritual and its art. Sonya Quintanilla has written on Jain sculpture and Robert Del Bontà on Jain painting. A detailed description of the individual objects in the exhibition forms the second half of this volume.

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Victorious Across Eternity The Lives of the Jain Tīrtha karas PAUL DUNDAS

Any first-time visitor to a large-scale Jain temple in India will at once be overcome by a wealth of impressions: the brightness and ornateness of the marble architecture, the pervasive sounds and scents of worship, the reverential if genial demeanor of devotees of all ages, and in particular the gleaming images seen in various parts of the shrine (Fig. 1.1). Our visitor will be aware that the principal object of worship in the temple is the icon of a human figure sunk in meditation, installed in the central shrine room, and he will note that it is flanked by similar albeit slightly less prominent images (Fig. 1.2). If he strolls around the outer wall surrounding the main shrine, he will likely see a row of twenty-four images, often housed in mini-shrines, which are much smaller in dimension and receive very little ritual or devotional attention compared to the main image of the temple but are otherwise identical in appearance to it. On closer inspection, these little images will be identifiable by a cartouche symbol particular to each of them and often also by a name engraved on the plinth on which each figure sits.

Our visitor will learn that all these images, large and small, represent the Tīrtha karas, the twenty-four saving teachers of this particular time cycle, and that the main image to which the Jain temple is dedicated represents one of these individuals.1

on their obviously male and at the same time somewhat asexual forms.2 As personifications of restraint and liberating knowledge, the Tīrtha karas represent both a spiritual type and specific teachers whom, in the light of the reverence directed toward them, our visitor to the Jain temple might be tempted to designate “saints” or even “gods.” However, neither divinity nor sainthood as understood in a monotheistic (Judaeo-Christian-Muslim) context are sufficiently adequate explanatory categories.

It is true that Jains use the expression “Bhagvān,” which can be rendered as “God,” to refer to the Tīrtha karas, but in fact this designation relates to these figures as a totality in terms of everything they represent, sometimes also called Paramātman (“Supreme Soul”), and acknowledges the innate and common capacity of human beings to transform their own innermost beings in the same way as the great teachers. Jains pay homage to this inner spiritual dimension when they worship the Tīrtha karas, and there is no question of these figures exercising any creative or regulatory role within the cosmos.

Sanctity in the sense of moral perfection is no doubt a primary attribute of all the Tīrtha karas, but the notion of sainthood in the sense of a postmortem ability to intervene positively in the lives of devotees does not serve to define what is significant about these Jain teachers; as dead renunciants who have achieved deliverance from rebirth, they cannot become involved in human affairs. While the “vita” of a Christian saint is defined by one lifetime and very often a single climactic act of piety or martyrdom, the career of each Tīrtha kara is played out over a vast span of time, during which innumerable vicissitudes of rebirth are undergone. Furthermore, as we shall see, the trajectories of the culminating existence of each Tīrtha kara are necessarily identical.

Seated in cross-legged impassivity or standing in an ascetic posture with arms hanging down, with elongated ears and painted, wide-open eyes indicative of superhuman powers of apprehension, images of Tīrtha karas are invariably highly stylized, and their religious significance is physically inscribed

1.1 | Jina (opposite page) India, southern Rajasthan, probably vicinity of Mt. Abu Dated by inscription to 1160 CE (Samvat 1217) White marble with traces of polychromy 23 1/2 x 19 x 8 1/2 inches (59.69 x 48.26 x 21.59 cm) Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. The Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund Photograph by Katherine Wetzel © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

A Tīrtha kara, literally a “maker of a ford (tīrtha),” is a human teacher, one of a line of twenty-four similar figures recurring 17

developed from existence to existence. Name karma is one of four types of karma that Jainism deems to be non-injurious determinants of the basic qualities and parameters of each individual’s life span. Specifically, name karma is responsible for whether a transmigrating soul is reborn and embodied as a human, an animal, a god, a denizen of hell, or even an insect or a plant and also establishes the necessary physical structure appropriate to each state. Life in all its outward manifestations is complex, and there are accordingly forty-two significant subtypes of name karma. Of these, the forty-second is “Tīrtha kara name” karma. This is itself composed of a variety of parts (twenty according to the Śvetāmbara sect and sixteen according to the Digambara sect) represented by highly positive ethical actions, which the individual must develop to the most intense degree but without any conscious aspiration to reach the state of a Tīrtha kara.

1.2 | Temple at Ranakpur 15th century

Becoming a Tīrtha kara is an extremely rare event, much rarer even than attaining omniscience.4 While Tīrtha karas are of normal physical form, in the early stages of this time cycle they, like other human creatures, are of vast dimensions and longevity. Their bodies bear particular marks that signal their regal and superhuman status,5 and they are of exceptionally strong physical structure to sustain the fierce austerities that characterize the path toward the gaining of omniscience and subsequent liberation. The Tīrtha karas’ elimination of negative karmic factors ensures that a huge number of living beings of all kinds can hear and understand their teachings with ease within a radius of a mile, and that in the course of their preaching, no danger, disease, or natural disaster occurs within that area. Every Jain temple is regarded as a locus of the moral purity that radiates from the Tīrtha karas.

Photograph by Koichi Shinohara

without beginning or end throughout successive temporal phases. They are born in particular, morally efficacious regions of the two-and-a-half island continents of the “Middle World,” the narrow area located between the upper world of heavens and the lower world of hells; Jain cosmography holds that human beings are located in the “Middle World.” In his final birth, a Tīrtha kara is a princely member of the warrior class who renounces the social and sensual world, performs austerities to eliminate the four main negative types of karma, and thereby attains omniscience. He then inaugurates anew the tīrtha, the Jain community of male and female renunciants (monks and nuns), laymen, and laywomen, and preaches the eternal uncreated scriptures that embody the doctrine of nonviolence and the renunciant vows whereby they are enacted.3 Through their intense ascetic practice, the Tīrtha karas have attained the four infinite qualities that every soul possesses when in its purest form, namely: knowledge, vision, bliss, and energy. As victors over the passions, they are also known by the epithet “Jina,” or “conqueror,” from which the religion of Jainism takes its name.

The Tīrtha karas and history: abha, Nemi, and Pārśva Twenty-four Tīrtha karas are regarded as having been born during this time cycle in Bharata, the southernmost region of the island-continent of Jambūdvīpa. It is uncertain when their names became fixed within Jain tradition, but the textual evidence suggests a date around the beginning of the first millennium CE. Thus the Āvaśyaka Sūtra, a Prākrit text that first enshrined basic Jain liturgy, contains a list of names framed within a devotional hymn in its second section, that has remained standard.6 However, the symbols with which the Tīrtha karas are associated are not described in the early

Attainment of the status of Tīrtha kara is contingent upon the cultivation of moral qualities throughout the process of rebirth and, above all, upon the gaining of a particular subdivision of a type of karma called nāman (literally “name”), which is 18

in the Śvetāmbara Jain monastic community.10 The Kalpa Sūtra gives accounts of the final existences of the four Tīrtha karas for whom we can find clear artistic and archaeological evidence from the first century BCE to the first century CE and who have remained the most significant foci of devotional activity within Jainism to this day, namely abha (Figs. 1.3–1.4), Nemi, Pārśva (Fig. 1.6), and Mahāvīra. The Kalpa Sūtra does not discuss their previous existences; only the five kalyā akas, the highly auspicious salient events of these Tīrtha karas’ final births (descent from heavenly residence, birth, renunciation of the world, attainment of omniscience, and death leading to deliverance), are described.

texts and do not seem to appear consistently upon iconic representations until around the fifth century CE. Furthermore, the Śvetāmbara and Digambara sectarian traditions sometimes record differences with regard to these symbols.

The names of the twenty-four Tīrtha karas (in the Sanskrit form that has become standard) along with the symbols associated with them by the Śvetāmbaras and Digambaras are as follows7: 1. abha (bull), 2. Ajita (elephant), 3. Sam . bhava (horse), 4. Abhinandana (monkey), 5. Sumati (Śvet. heron / Dig. cuckoo), 6. Padmaprabha (lotus), 7. Supārśva (Śvet. swastika emblem / Dig. nandyāvarta or swastika emblem),8 8. Candraprabha (moon), 9. Suvidhi (also called Pu padanta) (Śvet. crocodile / Dig. crab), 10. Śītala (Śvet. śrivatsa emblem9 / Dig. swastika or heavenly wishing tree), 11. Śreyām . sa (rhinoceros), 12. Vāsupūjya (buffalo), 13. Vimalā (boar), 14. Ānanta (Śvet. falcon / Dig. bear), 15. Dharma (thunderbolt), 16. Śānti (deer), 17. Kunthu (goat), 18. Ara (Śvet. nandyāvarta emblem / Dig. fish or flower), 19. Mallī (called Mallinātha by the Digs.) (water jar), 20. Munisuvrata (tortoise), 21. Nami (lotus), 22. Ari anemi (more commonly known as Nemi or Neminātha) (conchshell), 23. Pārśva (cobra), and 24. Vardhamāna (more commonly known as Mahāvīra, “Great Hero”) (lion).

An obvious question is whether all of these teachers, or indeed any of them, can be regarded as historical figures. Here we encounter a marked lack of correspondence between the concerns of devout followers of Jainism and of scholars who advocate a critical approach to ancient sources: the former hold to the genuine historicity of the entire line of twentyfour, while the latter argue that truly compelling evidence exists only for the last two, Pārśva and Mahāvīra. There is, of course, nothing inherently improbable about such a line of teachers and there scarcely exists a significant religious tradition that does not privilege some sort of authoritative chain of succession, descending from teacher through pupil, to validate the transmission of an authentic version of the faith.

However, Jainism holds that the Tīrtha karas are separated from each other by long periods of time (the earliest of them by many millions of years and the last two by at least one hundred years), so there can be no question here of direct pupillary descent. Indeed, the sequential appearance of the Tīrtha karas over a huge temporal span is an essential component of Jainism’s cosmic narrative of the inexorable process of physical and moral decline that takes place in this particular “descending” (avasarpi ī) cycle of time.

Defenders of the historicity of the Tīrtha karas suggest that if these vast periods of time are eliminated from the traditional biographies of the Tīrtha karas, then there remains quite simply a group of teachers. Evidence for the first representative, abha (often called Ādinātha, “Lord of the Beginning”), can be found, it is claimed, in India’s earliest archaeological and literary sources, thus substantiating the historicity of those coming after him (Figs. 1.3–1.4). However, there are difficulties with this interpretation as it relates to the first Tīrtha kara. The

The earliest textual source for the lives of any of the Tīrtha karas is the Kalpa Sūtra, a composite work dealing with renunciant procedure (kalpa), no doubt compiled gradually and dating, in some form, from around the beginning of the common era. Regular recitation of this text played a significant part in the establishment of solidarity and identity 19

1.3 | abha

1.4 | abha

Gupta period; 5th Century H: 5 7/8 inches (14.9 cm) Dr. Siddharth Bhansali Collection Photograph by Judith Cooper

Gupta period; 5th Century H: 4 3/8 inches (11.1 cm) Dr. Siddharth Bhansali Collection Photograph by Judith Cooper

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1.5 | Nemi’s wedding Folio 64 from a Kalpa Sūtra loose-leaf manuscript, verso Western Indian style, Patan, Gujarat, India; 1472 Opaque watercolor and ink on gold leaf on paper 4 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches (11 x 26 cm) Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Dr. Bertram H. Schaffner, 1994.11.72

narrative that eventually came to be associated with abha (literally, “bull”) locates him many millions of years ago, at the beginning of the third phase of the current time cycle. At this time, as well as enacting the standard career of a Tīrtha kara, he introduced a variety of practical and social skills to human beings and also participated paradigmatically in the very first act of giving (dāna) by a lay follower to a renunciant: at the end of a long period of fasting in the wilderness, he received sugar-cane juice as alms from a king. Those who argue for abha’s historicity point to depictions of bulls and crosslegged, vaguely ascetic-looking human figures on the clay seals found at excavation sites such as Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization (around 2500–1800 BCE) to support their claim. They also adduce occurrences of the word “ abha” in the poems of the g Veda, India’s earliest literary compositions from around 1400 to 1000 BCE, as further corroboration that the first Tīrtha kara should be viewed as a genuine historical figure. Unfortunately, the context of the Indus Valley seals is far too uncertain to bear the interpretative weight placed on them, while inspection of the use of “ abha” in the g Veda makes clear that it is regularly employed as no more than an epithet of the mighty Vedic god Indra.

K a, after hearing the anguished cries of the animals being slaughtered to feed the (non-Jain) guests and then renounced the world to embark on the final course of asceticism that led him to omniscience (Fig. 1.5). For the Jain, the location of this story in the vicinity of Mount Girnār in Gujarat, the site of Nemi’s enlightenment and death and an important pilgrimage place to this day, and the role within it of K a (more familiar as a Hindu deity and an incarnation of the god Vi u but viewed

by Jains as a princely layman and, as in Hinduism, a historical figure) are a guarantee both of the veracity of this narrative and the ancient presence of Jainism in the western peninsula.12 For the historian, however, this story can be read in a different manner: as deriving from the period of the gradual shift of the Jain community, which originated in the east of India, to the west of the subcontinent around the early centuries of the common era and its attempt to forge relations with the Vai ava devotees of K a in that region by assimilating their deity and transforming him into a subordinate associate of Nemi.

The possible historicity of the twenty-second Tīrtha kara, Nemi, who is said by the Kalpa Sūtra to have lived for one thousand years some eighty-five millennia ago,11 raises rather different issues. All Jains are familiar with the story of how Nemi turned away from his marriage ceremony, organized by his cousin

The evidence for the historicity of the twenty-third Tīrtha kara, Pārśva, is more complex. Regarded as having lived for a span 21

22

of one hundred years some two and one-half centuries before Mahāvīra, and on that basis dated to around the seventh century BCE, Pārśva is said by the Kalpa Sūtra to have been born in the city of Varanasi.13 As presented in the Kalpa Sūtra, the main events of his life are no different from those of the other Tīrtha karas described therein. However, a range of further sources both in the Śvetāmbara Jain scriptural canon and the Pāli Canon of the Buddhists suggests that Pārśva may have been a prominent teacher whose views on cosmology and renunciant behavior were drawn on and modified by Mahāvīra, who was possibly much nearer to him in time than traditional Jain chronology presents.14 Images of Pārśva with a characteristic canopy of cobra hoods have been ubiquitous throughout Jain history (Fig. 1.6); indeed, the earliest identifiable image of any Tīrtha kara is a statue dated between 120 and 75 BCE that can be recognized as Pārśva by the snake coils at its rear.15 Based on a derivation of the name Pārśva and also his traditional association with snakes, it has recently been suggested that he was originally a serpent prince who became merged with the historical figure of a renunciant teacher to produce the celebrated Tīrtha kara.16 The story that largely defines Pārśva’s status as the most popular object of devotion within Jainism does not assume textual shape until the ninth century CE, when writers of the Digambara sect produced biographies that give full play to his earlier births. This story describes how Pārśva in his penultimate rebirth as a prince rescued a snake, which had become trapped in the blazing wood of a Brāhma ’s sacrificial fire. Impelled by the force of his anger, the Brāhma was reborn as the demon Kama ha, who assaulted Pārśva with rocks and lightning shafts as he sat in ascetic contemplation, having taken birth as the twentythird Tīrtha kara-to-be. The rescued snake, reborn as a cobra prince called Dhara endra, protected Pārśva by sheltering him with its hoods.17

hoods as evidence that the legend of his persecution by Kama ha and protection by Dhara endra is much older than the earliest textual versions would suggest.18 However, while issues of historical background should not be skirted, it might be better to view the story of Pārśva as a powerful ethical parable focusing on issues central to Jain teaching, such as the desirability of nonviolence toward living creatures and the ties of action that bind individuals across existences.19

The lives of the Tīrtha karas in Jain legendary history The biographies of the Jain Tīrtha karas exemplify and encapsulate Jain doctrine through narrative, in which the similarity of the culminating births of the great teachers foregrounds the commonality of the karmic destiny that they have developed over the ages. Accounts of the Tīrtha karas’ lives and what preceded them were embedded and woven together in an extended structure of legend produced by many writers over several centuries, which scholars have come to call the Universal History.20 A biographical framework, which originated in skeletal form at the beginning of the common era in the Niryuktis, laconic Prākrit metrical glosses on some of the most important and ancient Jain scriptural texts, was eventually to be fully formalized by around the sixth century CE by the great Śvetāmbara teacher Haribhadra, whose extensive commentary on the Niryukti verses linked to the Āvaśyaka Sūtra elaborates many of the major narrative themes in the lives of the Tīrtha karas. The most celebrated example of the Universal History is by another Śvetāmbara teacher, Hemacandra, whose Tri a iśalākāpuru acarita (“The Lives of Sixty-Three Illustrious Persons”) is a huge Sanskrit poem written in the twelfth century. It describes how the destinies of the twentyfour Tīrtha karas are intertwined in the current time cycle through existence after existence with thirty-nine heroic, non-renunciant protagonists who have been appropriated from the mythology of Hindu Vai avism: twelve universal emperors (cakravartin), including the hero-god Rāma; nine Baladevas, layman-like figures who observe the primacy of the teaching of nonviolence; nine princely heroes called Vāsudeva; and their nine enemies, the Prativāsudevas (literally “anti-Vāsudevas”), all of them participants in a cosmic drama that operates in accordance with the prescriptions of Jain teaching.21 In elaborating this vast panorama of rebirth that

It may be tempting to historicize this famous story as a narrative that rationalizes an ancient association of the teacher Pārśva with a cult of tutelary serpents, or, alternatively, to view Pārśva’s early iconic connection with a parasol of cobra

1.6 | Pārśva Kushan period; 1st–3rd century H: 4 1/2 inches (11.4 cm) Dr. Siddharth Bhansali Collection Photograph by Judith Cooper

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lays bare the resonating consequences of moral and immoral action, the Universal History describes how the Vāsudevas will eventually be reborn as Tīrtha karas while the immediate fate of the Prativāsudevas is to be reborn in hell.

as a renunciant who could not fulfill his vows is indicative of the reassuring Jain perception that the careers of those who gain the most exalted states can still show periods of moral decline typical of more ordinary humans and that existences as inferior forms of life such as animals or hell-beings can and will be brought to an end by the force of meritorious actions performed in the course of rebirths. However, narrative and artistic representations of the earlier existences of Mahāvīra and the other Tīrtha karas are relatively meager in extent compared to the vast number recorded for the Buddha in the Pāli Jātakas, or birth stories, of the Theravāda Buddhist tradition of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. We might conclude that accounts of the rebirths of the great teachers do not have a particularly prominent place within the Jain imagination.

The idealized accounts of the final existences of the Tīrtha karas that occur as the nodal points within the Universal History depict austere individuals who are located outside society and thus have little significant contact with the non-renunciant world beyond periodic sermons devoted to its evils. Even the details of their lives before renunciation are little more than sketched contours. Silence is depicted as the necessary modality of every Tīrtha kara’s quotidian ascetic practice prior to omniscience, for after the attainment of perfect knowledge, his utterances are exclusively didactic. Each Tīrtha kara throughout his life embodies a degree of impassivity and moral perfection that renders direct imitation by followers almost impossible.22 It might, however, be argued that since each of these exalted figures has undergone many of the same vicissitudes of rebirth as his devotees, that shared experience among living creatures renders the Tīrtha kara more readily accessible as a type to be emulated.

The life of Mahāvīra Let us turn now to the life of the twenty-fourth Tīrtha kara, Mahāvīra (Great Hero). The Buddhist texts of the Pāli Canon show that Mahāvīra (there known as Niga ha Nātaputta) was a near exact contemporary of the Buddha, which dates him to around 490 to 415 BCE, although this remains a matter of scholarly debate. Unfortunately there is no actual description of Mahāvīra in the Pāli Canon nor any record there of the Buddha having encountered him, although his followers are often mentioned, so we must concentrate upon the evidence, however unsatisfactory, of the Jain scriptural texts in building a picture of this Tīrtha kara.

An inspection of the 105 previous existences of the twenty-four Tīrtha karas of this time cycle recorded by Hemacandra in his Lives of Sixty-Three Illustrious Persons shows that the first twenty-two were reborn in the lofty status of gods and princes only. Of the nine previous existences described for Pārśva, the twenty-third Tīrtha kara, the first is a Brāhma , the second a pious elephant, and the rest are gods and kings. Only with Mahāvīra, the twenty-fourth Tīrtha kara, does there occur a more developed range of existences, spanning a slightly wider range of possibilities. Among the twenty-seven existences specifically mentioned by Hemacandra, on one occasion Mahāvīra was a lion, on two occasions a humble human being, on another two a hell-being, and on six a Brāhma , while on the remaining occasions he was a king or a god. In the third existence recorded

by Hemacandra, the soul of Mahāvīra manifested itself in the time of abha as the first Tīrtha kara’s grandson Marīci, who lived as a proud but inadequate monk who could not endure the rigors of austerity despite his grandfather’s prophecy of his future rebirth as the last Tīrtha kara of the time cycle.

The oldest textual account of Mahāvīra occurs in chapter eight of the first book of the Ācārā ga Sūtra, a scripture of the Śvetāmbara canon dealing with correct renunciant behavior (ācāra), which has been unanimously judged to be one of the very earliest Jain texts, possibly dating from the fifth or fourth century BCE. In what seems to have originally been an independent poem, there is a graphic description of the physical difficulties and deprivations endured by the Great Hero for thirteen years after he had renounced his worldly ties. He is portrayed as having quickly abandoned clothing and human society to lead a life of wandering asceticism in remote and uncivilized regions, guarding the modalities of his body in order to avoid harming other living creatures in any way, all the while bravely enduring the discomforts of summer heat and winter cold, rough lodging, sleeplessness, fasting, and violent physical assaults by animals and unsympathetic people.23 No doubt this idealized portrait of ascetic heroism

The fact that karmic destiny has led even Mahāvīra to experience periods in hell, albeit temporary, and to be reborn 24

1.8 | Queen Triśalā’s dreams Folio 4 from a Kalpa Sūtra loose-leaf manuscript Western Indian style, Patan, Gujarat, India; 1472

1.7 | Pārśva endures torments and is protected by Dhara endra Folio 60 from a Kalpa Sūtra loose-leaf manuscript Western Indian style, Patan, Gujarat, India; 1472 Opaque watercolor and ink on gold leaf on paper 4 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches (11 x 26 cm) Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Dr. Bertram H. Schaffner, 1994.11.68

Opaque watercolor and ink on gold leaf on paper 4 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches (11 x 26 cm) Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Dr. Bertram H. Schaffner, 1994.11.12

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preserves vestiges of the actual life followed by MahÄ vÄŤra during this period of his career, and it has undoubtedly served as an inspiration for Jain renunciants to the present day.

However, it is markedly lacking in extended biographical data. For a more developed account, we have to consult two slightly later scriptures of the ĹšvetÄ mbara canon, both possibly composed around the first century CE: chapter fifteen of the second book of the Ä€cÄ rÄ ga SĹŤtra (which is undoubtedly later than the first book) and the opening portion of the Kalpa SĹŤtra, referred to earlier.

army, Hari egamesi, to transfer the embryo of MahÄ vÄŤra to the womb of a pregnant woman of the warrior class, TriĹ›alÄ , the wife of King SiddhÄ rtha, and take the embryo from her womb to that of DevÄ nandÄ (Figs. 1.9–1.10). TriĹ›alÄ then saw the auspicious dreams and had their significance explained to her, whereupon she eventually gave birth to the TÄŤrtha karato-be, an event greeted by the joyous acclamation of the gods (Figs. 1.8 and 1.11).

This episode can be interpreted as an example of the remarkable births deemed appropriate to divinities and important religious figures throughout the world and also as a polemic against the BrÄ hma class, whose authority renunciant movements like Jainism continually challenged.25 The Kalpa SĹŤtra further describes how, prior to his birth, MahÄ vÄŤra did not cause his mother TriĹ›alÄ any pain by kicking in the womb, only moving to reassure her that he was not dead, and also how at this juncture he undertook a vow not to renounce the world while his parents were still alive. These two prenatal resolutions can be regarded as having been prompted by the compassion for others, which guides Jainism’s central teaching of nonviolence, but the second may also pointedly allude to the behavior of the Buddha, whose biography, at least as understood by the Jains, portrays him as renouncing the world without any concern for the feelings of his parents.

The accounts of these two texts by no means agree in every detail: for example, the second book of the Ä€cÄ rÄ ga SĹŤtra gives a much less elaborate account of the process of MahÄ vÄŤra’s birth and does not describe his death at all. In fact, the version found in the Kalpa SĹŤtra is the one with which most ĹšvetÄ mbara Jains are familiar today, since painted illustrations—often greatly ornate and with fine artistic detail—of the five kalyÄ akas, the auspicious events within a TÄŤrtha kara’s final existence, are displayed to ĹšvetÄ mbara Jain congregations during the important festival of Paryu a Ä .

I will therefore delineate the life of MahÄ vÄŤra in accordance with this source and then describe aspects of the story that were added later.24 The Kalpa SĹŤtra states that MahÄ vÄŤra descended from the VimÄ na heaven where he had dwelt for a karmically allotted period of time and took the form of an embryo in the womb of a BrÄ hma woman called DevÄ nandÄ , who lived in the town of Ku agrÄ ma. In anticipation of the birth, DevÄ nandÄ experienced the fourteen auspicious dreams (an elephant, a bull, a lion, the lustration of the goddess of prosperity, a garland, a moon and sun, a flag, a vase, a lotus pool, an ocean, a heavenly realm, a pile of jewels, and a blazing fire) that invariably herald the appearance of some great figure, either a religious teacher or a universal emperor. She then informed her husband, abhadatta, who enthusiastically anticipated the birth of a son who would be a master of BrÄ hma learning. However, while surveying the world from his throne in the Saudharma Heaven, the god Ĺšakra (more commonly known as Indra) saw the embryonic MahÄ vÄŤra taking shape in the womb of his BrÄ hma mother and recalled that mighty heroes such as TÄŤrtha karas are never born in either low or BrÄ hma families but only within the warrior nobility.

Accordingly, Ĺšakra instructed the general of his heavenly

The TÄŤrtha kara-to-be’s birth was attended with lavish festivities and he was given the name VardhamÄ na (Increasing), due to the growth in prosperity throughout his father’s kingdom at the time. The Kalpa SĹŤtra records that he was also called Ĺšrama a (literally, “striverâ€?), a term used for ascetics, because he was free from attachment and aversion, and that the gods also gave him the designation MahÄ vÄŤra, or Great Hero, owing to his forbearance and endurance in the face of the difficulties of the renunciant life.26 The Kalpa SĹŤtra recounts no events in MahÄ vÄŤra’s life until the death of his parents when he was thirty years old. Then, he realized that the time for renunciation had come and, having obtained the permission of his brother and other elders, proceeded to distribute all his manifold possessions and finery among the deserving (Fig. 1.12). The celebratory procession that invariably precedes entry into the state of renunciation was attended by great crowds of mortals and gods, who transported the TÄŤrtha kara-to-be on a jeweled palanquin to a 26

1.9 | Indra with Hari egamesi (above) Folio 11 from a Kalpa Sūtra loose-leaf manuscript Western Indian Style, Patan, Gujarat, India; 1472

1.10 | Transfer of the embryo Folio 15 from a Kalpa Sūtra loose-leaf manuscript Western Indian Style, Patan, Gujarat, India; 1472

Opaque watercolor and ink on gold leaf on paper 4 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches (11 x 26 cm) Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Dr. Bertram H. Schaffner, 1994.11.19

Opaque watercolor and ink on gold leaf on paper 4 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches (11 x 26 cm) Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Dr. Bertram H. Schaffner, 1994.11.23

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1.11 | Interpretation of dreams (above) Folio 32 from a Kalpa Sūtra loose-leaf manuscript, verso Western Indian Style, Patan, Gujarat, India; 1472

1.12 | The great gift Folio 45 from a Kalpa Sūtra loose-leaf manuscript Western Indian Style, Patan, Gujarat, India; 1472

Opaque watercolor and ink on gold leaf on paper 4 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches (11 x 26 cm) Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Dr. Bertram H. Schaffner, 1994.11.40

Opaque watercolor and ink on gold leaf on paper 4 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches (11 x 26 cm) Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Dr. Bertram H. Schaffner, 1994.11.53

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1.13 | Mahāvīra on his way to renounce the world (above) Folio 47 from a Kalpa Sūtra loose-leaf manuscript Western Indian Style, Patan, Gujarat, India; 1472

1.14 | Mahāvīra’s renunciation Folio 48 from a Kalpa Sūtra loose-leaf manuscript, verso Western Indian Style, Patan, Gujarat, India; 1472

Opaque watercolor and ink on gold leaf on paper 4 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches (11 x 26 cm) Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Dr. Bertram H. Schaffner, 1994.11.55

Opaque watercolor and ink on gold leaf on paper 4 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches (11 x 26 cm) Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Dr. Bertram H. Schaffner, 1994.11.56

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park outside Ku agrÄ ma, and its climax was signaled by MahÄ vÄŤra pulling out his hair in five handfuls (Figs. 1.13–1.14).

Then, after fasting for two-and-a-half days without taking water, wearing what the Kalpa SĹŤtra calls a divine robe (explained by later hagiographers as a gift of the god Ĺšakra), he entered the state of homelessness quite alone. He wore his robe for only thirteen months; for a period of twelve years, he was naked and without possessions, using only his cupped hands to receive food. He was guarded in his every action and thought, indifferent to his surroundings, but truly free as he meditated upon his innermost self.

in future times, the Kalpa SĹŤtra enumerates the numbers of the community that MahÄ vÄŤra left behind: 14,000 monks led

by IndrabhĹŤti, 36,000 nuns led by the chief female renunciant CandanÄ , 159,000 laymen led by Ĺša khaĹ›ataka, and 318,000 laywomen led by SulasÄ and RevatÄŤ.28 The TÄŤrtha kara’s career is summed up in the following terms: thirty years as a householder, more than twelve years as a fully renunciant (i.e., naked) ascetic on the path to enlightenment, thirty years in the state of omniscience, forty-two years altogether as a renunciant ascetic, and a total life span of seventy-two years.

His death is described as having occurred three years, eightand-a-half months before the conclusion of the “uneven-even� period of the current descending time cycle and the beginning of the “uneven� period—the time of severe decline in moral behavior, in which we are located at this moment.

At the end of this regime of wandering ascetic detachment, During the thirteenth year, in the second month of summer, in the fourth fortnight, on its tenth day, when the shadow had turned towards the east and the first watch was over, outside of the town J mbhikagrÄ ma on the bank of the river jupÄ lika, not far from an old temple, in the field of the householder SÄ mÄ ga, under a sÄ l tree, when the moon was in conjunction with the asterism UttaraphalgunÄŤ, MahÄ vÄŤra in a squatting position with joined heels, exposing himself to the heat of the sun, after fasting two-and-a-half days without drinking water, being engaged in deep meditation, reached the highest knowledge and intuition called Kevala, which is infinite, supreme, unobstructed, unimpeded, complete and full.27 MahÄ vÄŤra had become fully omniscient, directly familiar with all possible actions, thoughts, and events relating to every living creature in all quarters of the universe in the past, present, and future. He now knew and saw everything.

Many elements of the biography of MahÄ vÄŤra familiar to later Jains are not provided by the Kalpa SĹŤtra. The second book of the Ä€cÄ rÄ ga SĹŤtra refers to his wife, YaĹ›odÄ , and daughter AnodyÄ (also called PriyadarĹ›anÄ ) and the fact that MahÄ vÄŤra’s parents were lay followers of PÄ rĹ›va, who fasted to death and would eventually achieve liberation. During the early centuries of the first millennium CE, beginning with texts that can generally be assigned to the chronologically more advanced stages of the ĹšvetÄ mbara scriptural canon, Jain tradition gradually added further details to MahÄ vÄŤra’s biography, creating a fuller, more developed narrative in the same way that Buddhist tradition expanded the few facts about the Buddha’s life scattered around its earliest texts. For example, regular references are made to the samavasara a, a circular amphitheater magically created by the gods to accommodate a central dais for MahÄ vÄŤra’s first sermon after his enlightenment, and the jeweled balustrades and corridors where his audience of humans, animals, and gods could assemble (Fig. 1.15).

After simply enumerating the locations of the forty-two, fourmonth rain retreats that MahÄ vÄŤra passed in the region of what is now the modern state of Bihar, the Kalpa SĹŤtra records that MahÄ vÄŤra, seated cross-legged, alone, and reciting sacred texts, died one night at the town of PÄ pa, becoming liberated and free from all suffering, to the accompaniment of a great uproar by the gods. On that same night, MahÄ vÄŤra’s closest disciple, IndrabhĹŤti Gautama (of whom no mention has hitherto been made by the Kalpa SĹŤtra), himself attained omniscience after having severed his ties of affection for his master, an event that was followed by the institution of a commemorative festival by the rulers of the various local regions. After making prophecies about the varying fortunes of Jain renunciants

Although a description of the samavasara a came to be a typical motif in the extended biographies of all TÄŤrtha karas, the occasion of MahÄ vÄŤra’s first sermon also afforded a narrative opportunity to clarify the manner in which he came into contact with his closest disciples. This segment of the biography, which probably does not much predate the sixth century CE, describes how a group of eleven BrÄ hma s about to perform an elaborate sacrifice saw the gods flying over their ritual enclosure without alighting there as anticipated. On following the gods to their destination, the BrÄ hma s found them listening to MahÄ vÄŤra 30

1.15 | Samavasara a. MahÄ vÄŤra’s enlightenment Folio 51 from a Kalpa SĹŤtra loose-leaf manuscript Western Indian Style, Patan, Gujarat, India; 1472

preaching in his samavasara a. They engaged him in debate on a variety of philosophical topics and became convinced of the ethical superiority of the Jain teaching of nonviolence and moral responsibility. These BrÄ hma s, headed by IndrabhĹŤti Gautama, became the ga adharas, the leaders of the renunciant troop, who channelled MahÄ vÄŤra teachings and configured them in the appropriate linguistic and scriptural form, suitable for general understanding. All the TÄŤrtha karas came to be envisaged as having such a group of disciples.

Opaque watercolor and ink on gold leaf on paper 4 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches (11 x 26 cm) Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Dr. Bertram H. Schaffner, 1994.11.59

and he died alone and unrepentant, with the falsity of his teaching having been demonstrated not by MahÄ vÄŤra but by his chief disciple.30

The introduction of other more inimical protagonists such as Makkhali GosÄ la and JamÄ li, possibly reflecting some measure of historical accuracy, provided a degree of narrative tension in the biography. The fifteenth chapter of the BhagavatÄŤ SĹŤtra, which seems originally to have been an independent text dating from the later stages of the formation of the scriptural canon, relates that Makkhali GosÄ la, the later founder of a rival ascetic group called the Ä€jÄŤvikas, attached himself to MahÄ vÄŤra toward the beginning of his career as an admiring follower who became tormented by jealousy. Eventually, after emitting a blast of ascetic fire against his master that rebounded onto him, he died admitting his own inadequacy in the face of the TÄŤrtha kara’s superior spiritual attainments.29 JamÄ li became closely tied to MahÄ vÄŤra by later tradition that held he was the TÄŤrtha kara’s son-in-law and the first individual from within the Jain community to challenge an element of his teachings. His attempt to found a rival community foundered

Compared to hagiographies of religious heroes in other traditions, there are few miracles or spectacular feats attributed to MahÄ vÄŤra by his biographers: these are generally depicted as being the province of gods who, for example, cause parasols and other lavish regal insignia to continually attend the TÄŤrtha kara in acknowledgment of his status and ascetic power. Occasional, potentially dramatic encounters, such as when MahÄ vÄŤra is bitten by the fierce serpent Ca akauĹ›ika, do not come to much and, as a rule, assaults on the TÄŤrtha kara are resolved by divine or human intervention. In general, the biographies are more preoccupied with highlighting MahÄ vÄŤra’s solitary endurance than with recounting any developed personal interaction he might have had with others.31 All in all, the versions of the life of MahÄ vÄŤra can be described as fairly subdued in tone and refreshingly lacking in febrile hagiographical intensity.

31

Tīrtha karas of the present and the future

medieval Jain cosmologists calculated that it is theoretically possible for there to be as many as 170 Tīrtha karas active at the same time in these areas.

Mahāvīra was the final Tīrtha kara of the current descending cycle of time in the region of Bharata, with his tīrtha lasting for 21,000 years, to the end of the fifth of the six phases of the time cycle. The next Tīrtha kara will not appear until the third phase of the succeeding ascending (utsarpi ī) temporal cycle.

Perhaps to compensate for the absence of an accessible saving teacher and to acknowledge an ancient scriptural statement that refers to both past and future Tīrtha karas, Jain texts of the early common era allowed for the presence of Tīrtha karas in other regions of the island-continent of Jambūdvīpa, of which Bharata was only the southern portion. In the region of Mahāvideha, which is situated at the center of Jambūdvīpa but surrounded by mountain ranges and rivers and therefore inaccessible to humans living elsewhere on the islandcontinent, the normal rhythms of time do not pertain and Tīrtha karas are continually being born in its eastern and western subregions.32 Suitably meritorious activity by those living in Bharata can lead to rebirth there and to the certainty of gaining omniscience and deliverance in the wake of actually coming into contact with a Tīrtha kara. Four Tīrtha karas, collectively called viharamā a (wandering), are preaching in Mahāvideha at this moment, of whom Sīmandhara is the most significant for devotees. This model of currently active Tīrtha karas is extended to one-and-a-half of the other islandcontinents of the Middle World, also inaccessible to those living in Bharata, where it is believed that another sixteen Tīrtha karas are preaching at this particular time. Indeed,

Jain hagiographers have never been greatly preoccupied with the Tīrtha karas of previous time cycles, and little is known of them beyond the names of those born in the cycle prior to the current one. However, in keeping with general Jain speculation about likely future events as time evolves, the narrative tradition enshrined in the Universal History began to identify through the dynamics of karmic destiny the associates of the Tīrtha karas of this descending time cycle with the Tīrtha karas to be born in the next ascending temporal cycle. So Śre ika, a king who was a lay devotee of Mahāvīra (and is also known in Buddhist tradition), will be reborn as Mahāpadma, the first Tīrtha kara of the next time cycle, while K a, the Tīrtha kara Nemi’s cousin, will be reborn as Amama, the future twelfth Tīrtha kara. Prior to these most glorious of final births, however, both will be required to spend a period of time in hell—Śre ika for having committed suicide after being imprisoned by his son and K a for various violent actions. In an earlier birth, the future fifteenth Tīrtha kara, Nirmamasvāmin, was, as all Jain women know, the steadfast laywoman Sulasā who refused to pay homage to anyone other than Mahāvīra.33 And so Tīrtha karas will appear again and again to teach the Jain path to deliverance as time rolls through endless eternity.

NOTES 1. Very occasionally a temple may be dedicated to one of the Tīrtha karas currently preaching in the region of Mahāvideha. For these, see the concluding section of this essay.

2. Cf. Marcus Banks, “The Body in Jain Art,” in Approaches to Jaina Studies: Philosophy, Logic, Rituals and Symbols, N.K. Wagle and Olle Qvarnstrøm, 311–23 (Toronto: University of Toronto Centre for South Asian Studies, 1999). According to Śvetāmbara Jain tradition, the nineteenth Tīrtha kara, Mallī, was born as a woman, an exceptional and remarkable event, the result of having dissembled about the number of lengthy fasting regimes which s/he had engaged in her/his previous birth as a monk. Images of Mallī are, however, no different from those of other Tīrtha karas.

3. For Jainism and its teachings, see Paul Dundas, The Jains (London: Routledge, 2002). Jains also use the term tīrtha to refer to their holy places, which are envisaged both as crossing places to deliverance and sites where the community can assemble to gain direct contact with the doctrine.

4. An omniscient being who is not a Tīrtha kara is called a kevalin.

5.

See Willem Bollée, “Physical Aspects of Some Mahāpuru as: Descent, Foetality, Birth,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens 49 (2005): 5–34.

6. This list is also found at Bhagavatī Sūtra 20. 8 (where Padmaprabha is called Suprabha and Candraprabha is called Śaśin), which is approximately contemporary with the Āvaśyaka Sūtra. See Jozef Deleu, Viyāhapannatti (Bhagavaī). The Fifth Anga of the Jaina Canon (Brugge: De Tempel, 1970), 256.

7. I follow, with some slight adjustments, Umakant P. Shah, Jaina-RūpaMa ana (Jaina Iconography) (New Delhi: Abhinava Publications, 1987), 84.

8. The nandyāvarta is a more ornate version of the swastika symbol.

9. The śrīvatsa is an auspicious mark usually found on the chest of a heroic or holy figure.

10. See the Kalpa Sūtra, translated by Hermann Jacobi, Jaina Sūtras, Part 1 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1884), 217–310. Dating the constituent parts of the Śvetāmbara Jain scriptural canon is a notoriously difficult task, and often all that can be said with certainty is that a particular

32

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

text, in the form now available, can be dated no later than the fifth century CE, when the final process of redaction is regarded to have taken place. Many texts or portions of texts have probably been dated too early or have not come down to us in their original forms. I follow the broadly convincing chronological framework given by Suzuko Ohira in A Study of the Bhagavatī Sūtra. A Chronological Study (Ahmedabad: Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology, 1994), 1–39.

Jacobi, Jaina Sūtras, 276–9.

Of the twenty-three other Tīrtha karas, twenty are regarded as having died on the summit of Mount Sammeta (modern Pārśvanātha Hill in Jharkhand), while abha passed away on Mount Kailāsa in the Himālayas, Vāsupūjya at Campāpurī, and Mahāvīra at Pāvā.

Jain tradition records that three other Tīrtha karas ( Supārśva, Candraprabha, and Śreyām.sa) were born in Vārā asī, the holiest city in Hinduism, or its environs, and four ( abha, Ajita, Abhinandana, and Ānanta) were born in Ayodhyā, which Hindus regard as the birthplace and capital of the hero-god Rāma. In the absence of persuasive supporting evidence, it might be suspected that the appearance of claims for these connections coincided with the increasing rise to prominence of these cities in the first half of the first millennium CE. See Sāgarmal Jain, “The Teachings of Arhat Pārśva and the Distinctness of his Sect,” 15–24, and Dalsukh D. Malvaniya, “Jina Pārśva in Jaina Canonical Literature,” 25–28, in Arhat Pārśva and Dhara endra Nexus, ed. M.A. Dhaky (Ahmedabad: Lalbhai Dalpatbai Institute of Indology; Delhi: Bhogilal Leharchand Institute of Indology, 1997).

See Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura, Ca. 150 BCE–100 CE (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 94. Images of Supārśva, one of the less commonly worshiped Tīrtha karas, are also distinguished by a canopy of cobra hoods, although they lack the coils to the rear that usually identify images of Pārśva.

See Willem Bollée, Ācārya Gu abhadra’s Pārśvacaritam. Life of Pārśva (Mumbai: Hindi Granth Karyalay, 2008), 2, where the Prākrit name Pāsa (Sanskrit: Pārśva) is derived from (U)pāsa(sena) (Sanskrit: Upāśvaśena). A serpent prince named Aśvasena is described in a famous episode of the Hindu epic, the Mahābhārata, as having escaped with difficulty from a great forest fire.

See Bollée, Ācārya Gu abhadra’s Pārśvacaritam; and Malvaniya, “Jina Pārśva in Jaina Canonical Literature,” 28.

The narrative theme of the first Tīrtha kara, abha, renouncing the world after witnessing the nymph Nīlāñjanā dancing herself to death is found textually at the same time as Digambara versions of the story of Pārśva. Yet its artistic presence at Mathurā around the second century CE shows that Jain tradition was familiar with some form of the story from an early time. See Quintanilla, History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura, 41–7.

This anti-Brāhma theme can also be seen in the story of the twentieth Tīrtha kara, Munisuvrata, which emerged at the same time as those of Pārśva, Kama ha, and Dhara endra. A friend of

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

33

Munisuvrata died in an agitated state of mind and was reborn as a stallion that was to be killed in a Brahmanical horse sacrifice, performed to validate the authority of a king. The stallion heard Munisuvrata preaching the Jain doctrine and, having thereby gained right belief, went on to be reborn as a god.

See John E. Cort, “An Overview of the Jaina Purā as,” in Purā a Perennis: Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts, ed. Wendy Doniger (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), 185–206.

See Hemacandra, Tri a iśalākāpuru acarita or The Lives of SixtyThree Illustrious Persons, Volumes 1–6, trans. Helen M. Johnson (Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1931–62). Digambara Jain writers, while prepared to work within the overarching genre of the Universal History, were also noteworthy, unlike their Śvetāmbara counterparts, for their accounts of the lives of individual Tīrtha karas.

See Phyllis Granoff, “From Detachment to Engagement: The Construction of the Holy Man in Medieval Śvetāmbara Jain Literature,” in Constructions hagiographiques dans le monde indien, ed.

Françoise Mallison (Paris: Librairie Honoré Champion, 2001), 97–121.

See Jacobi, Jaina Sūtras, 79–87.

Digambara Jains do not accept the authority of the Kalpa Sūtra or the authenticity of some of the events described in it, such as the transfer of Mahāvīra’s embryo or the Tīrtha kara’s marriage. See Jacobi, Jaina Sūtras, 189–210, for the relevant portion of book two of the Ācārā ga Sūtra.

Book two of the Ācārā ga Sūtra gives Mahāvīra’s parents the Brāhma clan name Kāśyapa, and the Tīrtha kara is sometimes addressed by this title in the older portions of the scriptural canon.

Hari egamesi, portrayed in manuscripts of the Kalpa Sūtra with a deer head and human body, is a version of a goat-headed tutelary demiurge associated in early India with childbirth. The Jains seem to have understood his name as containing the word hari a (“deer”).

See Bollée, “Physical Aspects of Some Mahāpuru as,” 12–13.

For the cosmic and ritual associations of the title Mahāvīra, see Bollée, “Physical Aspects of Some Mahāpuru as,” 5–7.

Jacobi, Jaina Sūtras, 263, slightly abridging and emending Jacobi’s translation.

Jacobi, Jaina Sūtras, 268, which also enumerates the extensive numbers of renunciants in possession of advanced attainments at the time of Mahāvīra’s death.

See Dundas, The Jains, 28–30.

See Paul Dundas, “The Later Fortunes of Jamāli,” in Studies in Jaina History and Culture: Disputes and Dialogues, ed. Peter Flügel (New York: Routledge, 2006), 33–60.

See Granoff, “From Detachment to Engagement,” 99.

See Ohira, A Study of the Bhagavatī Sūtra, 204. Sūtrak tā ga Sūtra 1.12.36 seems to refer to past and present Tīrtha karas.

See Nalini Balbir, “Tīrtha karas of the Future,” in Aspects of Jainology Vol. III. Pt. Dalsukhbhai Malvania Felicitation Volume, ed. M.A. Dhaky and S. Jain (Varanasi: P.V. Research Institute, 1991), 34–67.

34

The Cosmic Man and the Human Condition JOHN E. CORT

A list of twelve reflections was standardized at least as early as Umāsvāti, who lived between the second and fourth centuries.4 The reflections have also been a popular topic for Digambara authors for the past fifteen hundred years; many authors, both monks and laymen, have composed independent texts and portions of larger texts in which the reflections are the subject of extensive poetic renditions.5 Bhūdhar composed his short Braj précis of the reflections within this long-standing literary tradition.

The Cosmic Man stands fourteen rājus tall.

Within him countless souls wander without knowledge.1 This is the eleventh verse in a thirteen-verse hymn in the Braj language; many Digambar Jains of northern India sing it every day. The hymn is found in all of the hymnals published in northern India, of which dozens of well-used copies are found in every temple. It is popular enough that it is even found painted on the inside walls of some temples.2 It was composed by the poet Bhūdhardās (also known simply as Bhūdhar), a layman who lived in Agra in the first half of the eighteenth century. This hymn, “Bārah Bhāvnā” or “Twelve Reflections,” is a short vernacular summary of the twelve bhāvanās or anuprek ās.

Singing the human condition By the time the singer of Bhūdhar’s hymn reaches the verse on the cosmic man (lok puru ), he or she (the hymn is sung as often, if not more so, by women as by men) has already sung verses describing the fundamentally unsatisfactory nature of the material universe. The very first verse states that the world is marked by impermanence, and therefore, every one of us—who, as Bhūdhar says, includes both the lofty king and the simple elephant driver—is due to die, “each at his own time.” We cling to social and divine relationships in the hope of forestalling the inevitable, but none of these is of any avail.

Bhūdhar says in his second verse that there is no external shelter (śara a): neither deities nor human relations—not even one’s mother or father—can “stop the soul from going at the moment of death.” We are entranced by the world and spend our time seeking wealth, but Verse 3 asserts, “Nowhere in sam.sāra will you find happiness, no matter where you look in the world.”

The practice of concentrated reflection has roots in the Śvetāmbara scriptural canon and probably dates from the earliest Jain communities, before the gradual split into Śvetāmbara and Digambara sects in the early centuries of the common era.3 In this practice, the meditator engages in the consideration of negative subjects, such as the inevitable impermanence and decay of all things in the world and the lack of any deity or other being who can save us, as well as positive subjects, such as the need to understand the workings of karma and the salvific nature of the Jain dharma.

Part of our spiritual problem is that we are ignorant of who we really are. We think that all our connections in this life are substantial, but in fact “you came here alone, you will die alone” (Verse 4): all these relationships are ephemeral. We think that we are our bodies and so are deeply attached to them. But they are not really ours and in fact are loathsome and impure, as if we were all untouchable scavengers (Verses 5–6).

2.1 | The Jain universe in the shape of a cosmic man

or lokapuru a Folio from Sam.ghaya araya a loose-leaf manuscript Gujarat or Rajasthan; early 17th century Ink and opaque water color on paper 10 x 4 3/8 inches (25.4 x 11.1 cm) Collection of Bina and Navin Kumar Jain Photograph by Bruce M. White

35

body of the cosmic man is space, which is immense. While it is not infinite, it is so vast that its size is almost impossible to imagine, like the size of the universe of contemporary scientific astronomy. Bhūdhar said that the cosmic man stands fourteen rājus tall. A rāju (also rajju), or “rope,” was defined by medieval Jain cosmographers as “the distance covered by a god flying non-stop for six months at a speed of 2,057,152 yojanas (say 10,000,000 miles) a second.”7

A person needs to understand that the body and the entire material universe are other (anya) than one’s true spiritual essence. What drives the world is karma: “The thieves of karma loot everyone, but we pay no attention . . . [instead we] wander forever under the sway of a delusional dream” (Verse 7).

These reflections present a grim vision of the world. The Jain teachings are not misanthropic, however. Their goal is for each and every one of us to wake up to the true nature of reality. This awakening to a true knowledge of what is appropriate is difficult to find. In contrast, worldly goals such as wealth, prosperity, and power all come to us easily (Verse 12). If we have the true knowledge of our spiritual essence, then we can practice the five great vows (mahāvrata) and the five mindfulnesses (samiti) of a monk or nun. We can tame our senses and establish ourselves in the elimination of karmic bondage (Verse 10).

Outside the cosmic man is non-space. While non-space is infinite, it is irrelevant to the religious drama of the souls, for they exist only in space. The number of souls in the universe is infinite. They are uncreated and so have existed and will exist for all time.

In common with other indigenous cosmologies of South Asia, the Jain understanding of the universe divides it into three basic regions. Above the earth is a series of ten or twelve heavenly realms (the calculations vary) inhabited by beings whose lifespans, powers, and lives of enjoyment make them seem divine in comparison to humans, animals, and plants.

The beings that reside here—in the chest, shoulders, neck, and head of the cosmic man—experience lives of such pleasure that the very idea of suffering is absent. Each of these heavens is ruled by a king and queen, an Indra and Indrā ī. Above the heavenly realms, but separated from them by impassable differences in the karmic conditions of the residents, is a slightly bent realm. Here are all of the souls who have attained perfection (siddha) and so escaped the karmically driven circle of rebirth and re-death. These souls reside eternally in the four perfections of perception, knowledge, potential, and bliss.

How do we find this salvific knowledge? How do we stop the influx of binding karma that causes us such suffering?

How do we learn the rituals we need to follow to expel the “karma thieves” (Verses 8–9) who have entered our homes and stolen our souls? Bhūdhar says the answer is simple: listen to the words of the true guru, who wakes each of us from our delusional dreams (Verse 8) and teaches us the true dharma that “gives every joy” (Verse 13).

Saving knowledge of the cosmos According to Bhūdhar’s hymn, the Jain who understands the nature of reality sees that the cosmic man, the standing figure who presents such a striking image, represents a world filled with “countless souls [who] wander without knowledge.”

Placing these paintings within a Jain understanding reveals how they were used by the “true gurus” who endeavored to “wake up” people to the ignorance that causes vast suffering.

Depictions of the cosmic man are often found in Jain temples, precisely to remind the worshipers of where they are in the universe and what they should be striving to do in this life (Fig. 2.1).

Below the earth is a series of seven hellish realms that occupy the pelvic cavity, legs, and feet of the cosmic man. The inhabitants of these realms experience varying degrees of constant physical and mental anguish, which prevent them from fully imagining a virtuous life. These realms seem like hells in comparison to our lives. This area is slightly larger than the heavenly portion of the cosmic man, so at any given time more souls are in a state of suffering than in a state of pleasure.

These large depictions of the cosmic man are visually attractive in order to draw the viewer to the painting for closer inspection. The universe, according to the Jains, is uncreated: it has existed from beginning-less time and will continue for endless time.6 The part of the universe located within the

Neither Jain texts nor paintings devote much effort to detailed descriptions of the heavens. In part this is because while life in them is very enjoyable, it is also impermanent, and one will eventually die and be reborn in another place. These heavens 36

2.2 | Mural painting of āyu (longevity) karma Jaipur, Digambara temple, Divān Badhīcand; 2008

2.3 | Mural painting of vedanīya (pleasure- and

pain-causing) karma Jaipur, Digambara temple Divān Badhīcand; 2008 Photograph courtesy John E. Cort

Photograph courtesy John E. Cort

are not the ultimate goal of Jainism, and the Jain authors and painters have not wanted people to focus on the heavens; at best, they are gilded cages. But there is perhaps another reason authors and painters have paid relatively little attention to the heavens. Over the centuries, many literary critics have noted that the most interesting book of Dante’s The Divine Comedy trilogy is the first, Inferno, in which he details the many levels of hell in a medieval Christian cosmography. In contrast, the third book, Paradiso, is relatively uninteresting and even boring. It seems to be a universal feature of human nature that we find depictions of hells more gripping than depictions of heavens.

also allow the authors to amplify a rather simple but highly graphic understanding of the workings of karma. They do not delve into the details of the specifically Jain philosophy of eight kinds of karma but instead relate a simple “as you sow, so shall you reap” cause-and-effect understanding of karma.

Evidence suggests that the Jains did not develop an elaborate tradition of independent paintings that depict the hells, such as the medieval Japanese Buddhist Jigoku Zo- shi, literally “Scroll of Hell.” These paintings of the eight great and sixteen lesser hells show in graphic and captivating detail “the unremitting torments suffered by those who have fallen into Hell.”8 In some Jain temples, one finds a set of eight paintings illustrating the eight karmas of Jain philosophy: delusional (mohanīya) karma depicted by a man being offered pleasant food; lifespan (āyu) karma by a set of shackles (Fig. 2.2); and the karma that causes mundane pleasure and pain (vedanīya)

Accordingly, Jain authors have devoted more pages to describing the hells than the heavens. They do not ignore the heavens, and there are ample depictions of them in this catalog, but the hells receive far more attention. These descriptions 37

2.4 | Images of Hell

Folio from Sam.ghaya araya a loose-leaf manuscript Gujarat or Rajasthan; early 17th century Ink and opaque water color on paper 4 3/8 x 10 inches (11.1 x 25.4 cm) Collection of Bina and Navin Kumar Jain Photographs by Bruce M. White

38

by a man drawing a sword across his own tongue (Fig. 2.3). If one looks closely at the hells in the large paintings of the cosmic man, one can see all manner of tortures.9 There are, however, many manuscripts of cosmographical texts such as the Sam.graha ī Sūtras that were copiously illustrated with depictions of the hells, along with other cosmographical details (Fig. 2.4). A monk preaching about the inevitable hellish results of karmically bad deeds, words, and thoughts would point to these illustrations in order to underscore his message.

In that manner, the illustrations of the lives of Mahāvīra and the other Jinas in the Kalpa Sūtra are displayed to accompany the monastic sermons during the autumnal observance of Paryu a ā.10 This can be seen, for example, from the many illustrated folios of Sam.graha ī Sūtras from western India that date from the sixteenth through the eighteenth century at K.C. Aryan’s Home of Folk Art in Gurgaon (and recently published in the catalog of the collection).11 Most of them were designed for public display. Each page is largely devoid of print; the illustration is prominent and can be easily seen from a distance.

Only recently has a Śvetāmbara Mūrtipūjaka monk, Ācārya Vijay Jinendrasūri, published a popular set of books in Gujarati, Hindi, and English that illustrates the “pictures of hell.” Here again the karmic consequences of negative actions are depicted as simple causes and their effects. The man who tells lies is reborn in hell, where an ogre yanks out his tongue, time and again. The housewife who pounds grains without adequately ensuring that she isn’t harming any minute life forms is reborn in a hell where demons continually pummel her with an iron pestle. The farmer or gardener who kills many small creatures through the indiscriminate use of pesticides is reborn in hell and pierced repeatedly by a fiend. Each of these results is graphically illustrated in a color painting (Fig. 2.5).12

2.5 | Pictures of Hell

Ācārya Vijay Jinendrasūri, Nārakī Citrāvalī, fourth edition (Lakhabaval: Śrī Har pu pām t Jain Granthmālā) 1980, page 39.

While this middle region is minute when one looks at the cosmic man from the front, it is vast when one rotates one’s perspective ninety degrees and looks at it from above. The frontal portrayals of the cosmic man emphasize just how little of the universe is inhabitable by humans on one axis; the circular maps of the continents and oceans of the middle region reinforce this understanding on another axis (Fig. 2.6).

The thin human realm In between the heavens and the hells is the wafer-thin middle region, which corresponds to the waist of the cosmic man.

This is the only part of the universe where humans live.

Compared to the upper and lower regions, it comprises an almost negligible portion of the cosmic man. This is also the only part of the universe where there is a sufficient mixture of pleasure and pain, of good and bad, and therefore of ethical and spiritual awareness for liberation to be possible.

The middle region contains an innumerable series of concentric continents and oceans. Most of this realm, however, is again uninhabitable by humans, who can reside only on the innermost two-and-a-half continents: Jambūdvīpa, Dhātakīkha a, and the inner half of Pu karadvīpa. Jambūdvīpa is the innermost 39

2.6 | A hāīdvīpa Pa a, the Two-and-a-Half Continents Gujarat, India; 1810

Ink and opaque watercolor on cloth 42 3/8 x 40 3/8 inches (107.6 x 102.6 cm) Collection of Bina and Navin Kumar Jain Photograph by Bruce M. White

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ART

Victorious Ones

Jain Images of Perfection Edited by Phyllis Granoff 308 pages, 188 colour photographs 1 map 9.75 x 11.75” (247 x 299 mm), hc ISBN: 978-81-89995-29-4 (Mapin) ISBN: 978-0-944142-82-0 (Grantha) ₹3500 | $75 | £45 2010 • World rights