The Life and Stories of the Jaina Savior Parcvanatha

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Preface The publication in India, in the year 1912, of Bhavade vasari's Pargvanatha Caritra opens out, for the first time, a more connected and complete account of the life and supposed teachings of the penultimate Jaina Tir- thamkara, or Savior, Pareva or Parevanatha. The lives of the twenty-two Saviors preceding Parcva are paring myth. The last Tirthankara, Vardhamana or Nirgran- tha Jatrputra,' best known as Vira or Mahavira, pre- sumably a historical personage, regarded by the Jainas as the real founder of their religion, is supposed to have lived either in the last half of the sixth, or in the first half of the fifth century n. c. Pargvanatha is said to have preceded Vira by only 250 years, a passably moderate time, as Hindu time conceptions go. But beyond the persistent and, on the whole, Unitarian character of his story and his teaching, there is little to show that he was an historical personage. Be this as it may, the doctrines ascribed to Pargva are fundamental in Jaina religion, and Parcva's personality figures large in the Jaina legend and in Jaina consciousness. The life of Pargva, including his nine pre-births, as presented in Bhavadeva's work, is the first complete account of Pargvanatha published-to the Western world. And his account of Parcva's life, along with the many stories woven into it, adds to the chain of Hindu fiction books a jewel of no mean price.

Prakrit Nataputts or Nayaputta, turned erroneously into Banskrit Jataputra or Jaatiputra; in Banakrit the correct Jnatrputra does not figure. See Jacobi, Indian Antiquary, ix. 158 f. The Jainas say that he was born 817 B.C.

Introduction This essay is based upon Cri Bhavadevasuri's Parcvanatha Caritra, edited by Shravak Pandit Hargovinddas and Shravak Pandit Bechardas (gravakapandita-harago- vindadasa-becaradnsabhyam samcodhitam). Benares, Virasamvat, 2048 (A. D. 1912). Professor Leumann, in his List of Digambara Manuscripts in Strasburg, WZKM. xi, p. 306, mentions an Oxford Ms. of a Parcanatha Caritra by Sakalakirti. A manuscript of the same work by the same author is also catalogued by R. G. Bhandarkar, in his Report on the search for Sanskrit manuscripts in the Bombay Presidency (Bombay, 1887), in the list of Digambara ass. (pp. 91-126, nr. 12). A third Parcvanatha Caritra, by Udayaviragani, is cataloged by Rajendralalamitra, in his Catalog of Sanskrit Manu- scripts in the library of the Maharaja of Bikaner (Calcutta 1880), nr. 1502; and a fourth, by Manikyacandra, on pp. 157-164 of Peterson's Third Report on search of Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Bombay Circle (Bombay 1887).

**Contents and Sample Pages**