Aspects of Brahmanical Influence On Jaina Mythology

SR No.: 011037
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Shaktidhar Jha
Publisher: Bharat Bharti Bhandar
Publication Year: 1978
Total Pages: 315
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 12 MB

Page 141

The Ikṣoalu Race and its Various Branches
account of not only Sagara's parentage but also of the circumstances that prepared the Cakrin for renouncing worldly life. Thus, the work introduces Sagara18 as the son of one Samudravijaya without referring to his relationship with Ajitanātha, the second Jina The Svetambara versions, on the other hand, unanimously represent Sagara as the son of Sumitra19 or Sumitravijaya, 20, said to have been the younger brother of Jitasatru, father of Aptanatha.
However, it is significant that all Purānas under investigation represent king Sagara as a scion of the Ihşvāku race and, with some modifications in the events and legends connected with his life, the Jaina Purānas tell almost the same story as is found in the epics and the Brahmanical Purānas 21 Thus, like the latter works the Jaina sources set out Sagara as the father of sixty thousand sons22 of formidable physical power The Puranas, with the exception of the UP, tell us that those sixty thousand brothers were reduced to ashes by a Naga king whose house in the lower regions had been accidentally destroyed by the former
123
The episode 23 in a nutshell Is that once Sagara's sixty thousand sons went to Mt Aştapada (Kailasa) to pay homage to the twenty-four Jina shrines built by king Bharata with precious metals There with a view to protect the shrines from future destruction, the princes dug up a moat
18
..................साकेतनगरे कौशले नृप । समुद्रविजयस्तस्य सु वाला रमणी तयो || महाबलोभवत्सूनुरिक्ष्वाकु सगराह्वय ।
UP 48 71-72a
19 VH 300-304, CMC p 55
20 TSPC, 2 2 12, 65-72, 103-104ff
21 He is unanimously represented as an illustrious Ikşvāku sovereign of his time.-Rāmā 170 30, 11 110 18 MBh 111 100 7-8 Vayup 88 127-143, HV 1 13-32 to 14 20
22 MBh 11 107 1-6, Vayu 88 161-163, HV 115 7-10, Rāmā 1 38 to 1 41 etc
23 VPC, 5 169-174, RPC, 5 248-52, JHV, 13 28-29, SPC, 5 10,4 to 5 11,2, VH, p 300-304, CMC pp 63-64, TSPC, 2 5 87-177.