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  • 1994 Biographical Writings Amongst The Svetambara Jains in Northwestern India

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    Phyllis Granoff 1994 Biographical Writings Amongst the Svetambara Jains in Northwestern India

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    Phyllis Granoff 1994 Biographical Writings Amongst the Svetambara Jains in Northwestern India

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    1994 Biographical Writings Amongst The Svetambara Jains in Northwestern India

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    Phyllis Granoff 1994 Biographical Writings Amongst the Svetambara Jains in Northwestern India

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    “fice mt b Buea. Me yooepticd ees (nab $94 yllis Granoff BIOGRAPHICAL WRITINGS AMONGST, THE SVETAMBARA JAINS IN NORTHWESTERN INDIA ‘The literary activities of medieval Svetambara Jain monks reflect above all the diversity and richness of medieval Jain monastic cul- ture. While we may suspect that no: all the monks were equally gifted or equally well-educated, at least in the stories told of them we hear that there were some who boasted that they knew every major text of their day, in every subject. Thus we meet the monk Pradyumnacrya, who in his arrogance insisted to Jinapatistri that he knew all the texts of grammar, including that written by Hemacandra; all the major poetry compositions including the works of Magha; all the major Sanskrit prose compositions, in- cluding the Kadambart; all of the major Sanskrit dramas, including those of Murari; every text on metrics; all the major philosophical works including Sridhara’s Nyayakandali. and Udayana’s Kiranavali and the works of Abhayadevasiri; every major work on poetics, including the Kavyaprakasa of Mammata and of course every single authoritative Jain text! In addition monks were expected to be conversant with many languages. Thus we read in the same text how Jinapatisiri chal- lenged another opponent, Padmaprabha, to debate with him in the king’s court, in pure Prakrit, in chaste Sanskrit, in Magadhi, in Paisaci, in Sauraseni, in Apabhrarhéa, in prose or verse, on the subject of grammar, metrics, poetics, alchemy, drama, logic, astrology, or Jain doctrine. Medieval monks did indeed write in more than one language; a small collection of writings by 1 Kharataragaccha brhadgurvavali, edited by Jina Vijaya Muni, Singhi Jain Sern, vol. 2, Bombay, 1956, pp. 39-40 2 Ibid, 31 132 Phyllis Granoff Samayasundara, a seventeenth century monk, includes poems in Sanskrit, Prakrit, Hindi, Gujarati, Rajasthani and Sindhi’ Biographical writing by Jain monks reflects both this many- faceted education and the multi-lingual reality of their society. Monks as authors could write in many languages and in many dif- ferent styles; familiar with court poetry they could if they chose write a biography in the grand style of the Sanskrit mahakavya; they could emulate the baroque prose of the Kadambari; they could choose a simpler more colloquial Sanskrit or they could write in a vernacular language, using prose or verse. Biographies were also diverse in terms of their subjects. Monks could write the lives of the Tirthankaras or of ancient monks; they could also write of more recent monks, their own teachers and friends. Monks wrote about the deeds of laymen who made significant contributions to the Jain faith, and particularly of the kings who patronized them. Medieval Jain biographical writing was also done for a number of different purposes: some biography collections were composed for lay readers without any avowedly sectarian purpose; some bi- ographies were written as records of specific monastic lineages and were meant to press forward the claims of that group to be the au- thentic transmitters of the teaching, in an atmosphere of often in- tense sectarian rivalry. Other biographies were written as private devotional texts‘. Still other texts were more like occasional poems, written for example to commemorate the restoration of a pilgrimage site by a wealthy lay patron, and including a detailed description of the lineage and family history of the lay patron and a history of the monastic lineage of his spiritual adviser’. It seems 3 Samaysundara krtikusumafyjali, edited by A. and B. Nabata, Abhayajaina Granthamala, vol. 15, Calcutta 1956. Monks were not the only ones who \were supposed to be multi-lingual; spies and kings were also said to be fluent in many languages. See for example the spy in chapter 3 of the Upamitibhavapraparcakatha, edited by Hermann Jacobi, Calcutta: Bibliotheca Indica, 1899, and the Prikivirdjavijayakavya by Jayanaka, Calcutta: Bibliotheca Indica, 1914-192, p. 18. 4 For example the pocm on Jinalabdhisiri, the colophon to which states that the tex vas for the private reading ofthe monk Tnabhadr, Ses the article i acaryaom sambandhi katipaya iravidydlaya Suwarnamahotsava Grantha, Bombay: Sri Mahavira Vidyalaya, 1968, pp. 24-36. 3 Such was the Nabhinanandanoddhara, for example, written by the monk Kakkastiri in 1336 AD. The text is edited by Bhagavandas Jarakhcanda in the Sof Hemacaryajaina Granthaméla, 1928 and I have translated some of Svetmbara Jains in N.W. India 133 only natural to assume that such texts, with so many different de- signs, would differ from each other in both content and style’. In addition there were often many variant versions of biographies of a single subject. One disciple might write a straightforward account of his teacher, describing his pilgrimages, his royal honours and his literary accomplishments while another disciple might write a very different account, filled with miracles, in which the same monk was honoured not for his learning but for his ability to perform super- natural feats. In time, too, biographical traditions about a single subject would naturally change and grow, with the biographies in- corporating new incidents’. A\ll of these considerations make it difficult to speak of biography writing amongst the Svetimbara Jains as a whole. In fact biogra- phy writing by medieval Jain monks does not constitute a single coherent genre of writing about which one can easily generalize, except to say that biography writing in all of its diverse manifesta- tions was clearly an important part of the literary activity of medi- eval Jain monks. In addition so many texts remain unedited and unstudied, that it would be premature at this stage of our know- ledge of medieval Jain biography writing to attempt an overall survey cither of scholarship done to date or even of the known ‘the passages in a recent paper, “The householder as shaman: jain biographies of temple builders’ to be published in East and West 6 Lhave studied the prabandhas to some extent as texts that attempt to rise above sectarian biography writing. See my papers on Siddhasena, published in the Journal of Indian Philosophy, part 1in vol. 17, 1989, pp. 329-384; part IL in vol. 18, 1990, pp. 261-304. have written about the sectarian biogra- phies of the Kharataragaccha in a recent article,: ‘Religious biography and clan history among the Svetimbara Jains in North India’, East and West, vol. 39, December 1989, pp. 195-217, and in an article io appear in the Festschrift for Jozef Delew that is being edited by K. Watanabe. I am also preparing a book with Dr. Koichi Shinohara on religious biography in Asia My contribution is a long article on sectarian biography and autobiographical writing in the Kharatacagaccha. The book will be pub- lished in 1992 by Mosaic Press, Oakville, Ontario under the title Speaking of monks. 7 Thave attempted to describe the different types of biographies that could be written about a single monk in a long paper on the biographies and autobiographical writings of two Kharatara monks, Jinadatta and Jinaprabhasiir. The paper is to be published in the book mentioned above, ‘Speaking of monks. Ihave translated a number of the relevant texts in that paper. 134 Phyllis Granoff texts’. Very few translations into European languages exist for medieval biographies, which has meant that they have not drawn the wide scholarly attention that they deserve’. In this article 1 Propose to translate and discuss two examples of medieval bi- ographical writing by Jain monks in an effort to acquaint readers + For example, one of the most important links between the Avaiyaka com- mentarial tradition and later biographical writing, Bhadreivara’s Kahdvali, remains unpublished. See the article by Dalsukh Malvania, ‘On Bhadresvara’s Kahivalf. In: Indologica Taurinensia vol. 13, 1983. Dr. Bhavani informs me that th txt soon to be published. The Kahaval is very important to any study of the origins of medieval biography writing Xs raatlonship 10 the ich tradition of digacte story tllg, T have looked at this issue briefly in an article, “The biographies of Arya Khapaticirya: a preliminary investigation into the transmission and adaptation of biograph- ‘cal legends’, in Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara, eds., Monks and ‘magicians: religious biography in Asia (Oakville, Ontario: Mosaic Press) 1988, pp. 67-99. i Many of the vernacular texts are also unpublished and unstudied; a pio neering effort to publish vernacular sources for the Kharataragaccha is Aitihasika jaina kivya sarngraha by A. and B. Nahata, Si Abhaya Jaina Grantham, vol. 8, Calcutta: Sankchardana Subbairaj Nahata, 1938, but ‘there exists no scholarship on these poems. In the Kharatara tradition the early biographies contained in the commentaries to the Ganadhara sardha ataka aze also unpublished, and the same is true for many of the other ‘monastic lineages. Published texts are also notoriously difficult to obtain in braries outside India, and working in the area I have constantly felt ham- ered by the certainty that I construct my hypotheses about biography ‘writing amongst the Jains on the basis of incomplete evidence. 9 The Kharataragaccha brhadgurvavali has been translated into Hindi by Mahimahopadhydy Vinayasigara, with an introduction by A. Nahatd, as Kharataragaccha ka itihasa, Ajmer: Dada Jinadattastri Astamasatibdi Mahotsava Svagatakdrini Samiti, 1959. The Prabandha cintdmani_of Merutuiga has been translated into English by CHTawney, The Prabandha cintamani or wishing-stone of narratives, Calcutta, in: The Asiatic ‘Society, 1901. Lhave translated some of the Prabandha Kosa in a collection that I edited, The clever adulteress and the hungry monk: a treasury of Jain stories, from Oakville, Ontario, Mosaic Press, 1990. In the same volume Dr. Rosalind Lefeber has translated the story of Cénakya from the Paritstaparvan. Hermann Jacobi translated the biography of Siddbarsi from the Prabhdvakacarita in his introduction to the Upamiti bhava prapafcakathd, Calcutta, in: Bibliotheca Indica, 1901-1914. J. Hertel trans- lated some of the stories in the PariSiseaparvan, as Ausgewahite Eradhlungen ‘aus Hemacandra’s Parisistaparvan, Leipzig, 1908. The most extensive trans- lation of biographies of the Tirtharikaras is Helen Johnson's translation of Hemacandra’s Trisastisilakapurusacarita (Baroda: Gackwad's Oriental Se- ries) 1931-1962. For other translations see the bibliography at the end of this article. Svetambara Jains in N.W. India 135 with the various types of writing that can come under this general rubric. I include at the end of the article some suggestions for fu- ture study and a bibliography that should give readers the oppor- tunity to review past scholarship and aote the variety of texts that have been published to date. I shall begin with the account of a layman, the merchant Abhada, who was celebrated for his many pious acts. After Abhada I consider a brief Prakrit biography of the Kharatara monk Jinavallabhasiri, which shows how closely related accounts of laymen and monks could in fact be. There also exists a lengthy Sanskrit biography of Jinavallabhasiri, to which I shall refer in my discussion of the shorter and very different Prakrit biography that I translate. I have chosen these biographies in part because they are relatively short and I wished to convey a sense of the di- versity and variety of medieval biography literature and thus wanted to translate more than one text. I also chose them for their intrinsic interest as stories, but I caution that these biographies by no means exhaust the types of biographical writing that exist in medieval Jainism. There are panegyrics that follow the style of in- scriptions and there are many accounts of monks that read as if they were actual diaries, giving lists of dates and places visited. While these diary-like accounts are of interest in showing what kinds of raw data might have been available to story-tellers and are Probably more useful as historical sources than the type of biogra- phies I have translated, they make less interesting reading and I have not selected one for translation”, I The merchant Abhada ‘The longest and most elaborate account of the merchant Abhada appears in Rajasekhara’s Prabandha kosa, which was written in 136 Phyllis Granof 1349 AD". There is a shorter account of Abhada in the Prabandha cintamani of Merutuiga (1304 AD)". The Purdtana prabandha samngraha, a diverse collection of stories about various kings, monks and famous Jain laymen, contains a number of stories about Abhada, most importantly the Vasaha Abhadaprabandha"*. Abhada also figures in Subhasilagani’s collection of brief accounts of various monks and lay Jains that was done in 1464 AD and is entitled Paficasati prabandha sarnbandha"*. In general the prabandhas were written in a colloquial Sanskrit that was heavily mixed with vernacular expressions'’. They often seem close to the folk-tradition, and stories told of one individual in a prabandha frequently reappear, only to be told of a different individual. Abhada in some of the versions of his biography is a typical Jain layman: he begins poor, having lost a vast fortune, but through his own cleverness and good luck he gains great wealth. A monk predicts that he will be rich, and Abhada like his counter- parts then devotes a considerable portion of his wealth to pious deeds, spending it on the ‘seven holy causes’ or saptaksetra, on the 10 Virtually the whole latter half of the Kharataragacchabrhadgurvavalt is such a diary-like account. u The text is edited by Jina Vijaya Muni in the Singhi Jain Series, vol.6, Santiniketan: Singhi Jaina Pitha, 1935. The account of Abhada begins on page 97. There is a Gujarati translation by Hiralal Rasikdas Kapadia, pub- lished in the S:i Forbes Gujarati Sabha Granthamila, vol. 18, Ahmedabad, 1950. The section on Abhada appears on pp. 172-176. 12 The text is edited by Jina Vijaya Muni in the Singhi Jain Series vol. 1, Santiniketan: Singhi Jaina Pitha, 1933 and the account is on pp. 69-70. 13 The text is edited by Jina Vijaya Muni in the Singhi Jain Series, vol. 2, Calcutta: Singhi Jaina Jaanapitha, 1936, p. 33. 14 The text is edited by Muni Sci Mrgendra, Surat: Suvasti Sahitya Prakééan, 1968. Abhada’s story is no. 92, pp. 49-50. 15 Scholarship on the prabandhas includes the important article by Jozef Deleu, ‘A Note on the Jain Prabandhas’, in: Studien zum Jainismus und Buddhismus, Gedenkschrift far Ludwig Alsdorf, edited by Klaus Bruhn and Albert Wezler, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1981, pp. 61-73. Deleu also wrote an article on the language of the prabandhas, ‘Lexicographical addenda from Rajasckharastni's Prabandha kota’, in: Indian Linguistics Turner Jubilee Volume, II, 1959, pp. 180-219. The main dictionary for the prabandias was published as a series of articles in the Journal of the Oriental Society, Baroda, by BJ. Sandesara and J.P. Thaker, under the title Lexicographical Studies in Jaina Sanskrit. My copy lacks the dates, but the series of articles has been reprinted in a single volume. Svetémbara Jains in N.W. India 137 construction of images of the Jinas, on temple building, on the monks and nuns, and on Jain laymen and women’, The biography in the Prabandha koéa that 1 have chosen to translate is somewhat atypical in that it devotes considerable time to stories that deal with matters other than Abhada’s simple piety; we become involved in intrigue at the royal court and in the mon- astery. Abhada’s contribution to the Faith is a more complicated affair in the Prabandha kosa than in the other versions of his deeds. The Story of Abhada from the Prabandha kosa In the city of Anahilapura dwelt the merchant Nrpaniga from the Srimala clan. “His wife was Sundari. They had a son, Abhada. When Abhada was ten years old his mother and father both died. The family wealth was gone Nonetheless, because he was $0 clover at business and because he always kept counsel with good men, Abhada prospered. He obtained a wife for himself on the strength of his family’s former reputation and married her. To support them he used to work in the homes of jewellers, polishing tiny bells. He earned five coins, one of which he always spent on pious acts. He used two of the coins to support himself and his wife. He kept two as his savings. In his fourteenth year he had a son. Now his wife did not have enough milk to nurse the baby and so 16 Parallels to the story of Abhada may be found in the accounts of the mer- chant, Jagadi, whose story was told in a poem by Sarvananda, the Jagadacarita. ' Excerpts from the text appear in an article by Georg Bihler, “The Jagaducharita, a historical romance from Gujarat’, Indian Studies, No. 1, 74 pp. The article contains translations of select passages from the text along with the text itself and excerpts aad translations of Subhailagani’s accounts of Jagad. The complete text by Sarvinanda was edited by Panyisa Srimunivijaya gani in the Sei Atmavallabha Grantha Series, No. 6, Panjab: Atmananda Jaina Sabha, 1925. Both Abhada and Jagad@ find a magie jewel hanging from a goat and buy ‘the goat for a very small price. Abhada also has much in common with the layman in the biography of Jinavallabha translated below; he too is poor and people are astonished when Jinavallabha predicts that he will come to have great wealth. Finally, the motif of a man becoming rich by having superna- tural ability to recognize a precious substance that its owner cannot ses is familiar from Buddhist sources, particularly the avadanas. In’ the Divydvadana POma is able to recognize the fabulously valuable

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