kṛṣṇa in Jainism

kṛṣṇa in Jainism

kṛṣṇa appears in Jain spiritual lore also. The Jains also have purāṇas just as hindus have. Their rāmāyaṇa is called by them as pauma cariya and kṛṣṇa, baladeva appear in harivamśapurāṇa (not the harivamśa of the hindus). Jains have a class of “śalākā puruṣas”; śalākā in Sanskrit means a piece of bamboo worn by mendicants, with their names marked in the piece, as a kind of credential, and so we may liken the śalākā to the modern id tag. The proper meaning in the Jain context would be heroic or great men. According to the beliefs of Jains there are 63 śalākā puruṣas in each epoch (similar to the ‘yuga’ concept of the hindus) as under:

24 Tirthankaras
12 Chakravartis
9 Vasudevas (Narayans)
9 Prati Vasudevas (Prati Narayans)
9 Baladevas (Balabhadras)
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63 Total

neminātha, the twenty second tīrthaṃkara is the cousin of kṛṣṇa, as per Jain scriptures. There are five royal lineages (kṣatriya vaṃśas) according to Jain purāṇas, viz., puru, kuru, nātha, rudra and hari, while hindus have two prominent vaṃśas - sūrya and candra, while agni vaṃśa is a lesser known third. Both neminātha and kṛṣṇa belonged to the hari vaṃśa. Samudravijaya, father of neminātha (ariṣṭanemi) was the brother of vasudeva, father of kṛṣṇa, sons of the brothers andhakavṛṣṇi (also mentioned as analakavṛṣṇi) and bhojavṛṣṇi, thus making them second cousins. The name ariṣṭanemi (ariṣṭanemā) is also found in quite a few places in Hindu purāṇas, besides the yajurveda, though people may not be familiar.

neminātha was a renunciate and kṛṣṇa regarded him as his superior. According to Jain scriptures, it is stated that kṛṣṇa invariably went and met neminātha whenever the latter visited kṛṣṇa’s country but neminātha, being a renunciate, never did visit his brother.

There is one section of opinion that ghora āṅgirasa mentioned in chāndogya upaniṣad is none other than neminātha (ariṣṭanemi).

This conclusion is based on the fact that the vidyā imparted by ghora āṅgirasa to kṛṣṇa emphasized austerity, charity, uprightness, non-violence and truthful utterances (तपॊ दानमार्जवमहिगँसा सत्यवचनमिति ता अस्य दक्षिणा), which are essentially Jain tenets themselves.

According to Jain belief, ṛṣabhadeva and twenty one other tīrthaṃkaras were born in the ikṣvāku dynasty. The twentieth tīrthaṃkara, munisuvrata, was born in the harivaṃśa dynasty. King vasu was also from harivaṃśa or yādava clan. After a long time there was another great king śauri who was the founder of the famous śauripur town. śauri had two sons andhakavṛṣṇi and bhojavṛṣṇi. andhakavṛṣṇi had ten sons, the eldest was samudravijaya and the youngest vasudeva.

The great soul which was prince śaṃkha in the previous birth descended from the aparājita dimension of gods into the womb of queen śivadevi, wife of king samudravijaya of śauripur (near modern mathurā). The fourteen great dreams of the queen indicated that this being was to become a tīrthaṃkara. On the fifth day of the bright half of the month of śrāvaṇ queen śivadevi gave birth to a son. As per the convention 56 goddesses of the different directions arrived and performed celebrations after the post-birth cleaning.

As the queen had seen in her dreams a disc with ariṣṭa gems, the new-born will be called ariṣṭanemi.

vasudeva, the younger brother of king samudravijaya had two wives. His senior queen rohiṇi had a son named balarāma (padma) and junior queen devaki had a son named śrīkṛṣṇa (kānhā, in prākṛt) . balarāma and śrīkṛṣṇa were the ninth baladeva and vāsudeva.

There were a number of small kingdoms in those days and there were lots of conspiracies among these rulers. kaṃsa and jarāsandha, two cruel kings, were the worst of these. jarāsandha was the prativāsudeva in that cycle. The yādavas desiring peace, and as per astrological advice, went away from śauripur (mathurā) to the far away western coast. śrīkṛṣṇa built the beautiful town named dvāraka there near the raivataka (modern Girnar) mountain. Its architecture was very grand, fortification extremely strong and all these made the city beautiful like heaven and unconquerable. (Here we see some similarity to the ghaṭajātaka narration. Mahābhārata, sabhāparva also gives a similar description about dvāraka. Hence it may be correct to assume that there was at one time a very beautiful and well-defended city on the western coast of India and at least its memory remained in the minds of all these writers, of the Jain harivaṃśa purāṇa, the Buddhist ghaṭajātaka as well as the mahābhārata.)

Among the 9 sets of baladevas and vāsudevas, the most well-known are balarāma and śrīkṛṣṇa. The Jain version of the mahābhārata tells the story of the kauravas and pāṇḍavas and the descendants of śrīkṛṣṇa and balarāma are also described. The kauravas and pāṇḍavas are converted to the Jain religion. Finally the pāṇḍavas also become ascetics and like nemi, or ariṣṭanemi, attain Nirvana. The main battle according to the Jain version is not between pāṇḍavas and kauravas, as related in the Hindu mahābhārata. It is kṛṣṇa’s fight with jarāsandha which is central in the Jain account, and in this pāṇḍavas side with jarāsandha, kṛṣṇa’s enemy.

The Jain story of kṛṣṇa describes his life in a way very similar to the bhāgavatpurāṇa of Hindus – including incidents like cattle-grazing, kāḷiṃgamardana, rukmiṇī haraṇa, satyabhāmāpariṇaya, govardhanoddhāraṇa, kaṃsavadha, etc. (Uttarapurana by Srimad Gunabadhracharya). The character of kṛṣṇa is present in two other Jain canonical works - antakṛddaśaḥ and jñātadharma kathā.

ariṣṭanemi (neminātha), balarāma and kṛṣṇa underwent the religious ceremonies together, according to Jain scriptures. Samudravijaya, neminātha’s father, preached the ancient hymn to his son and neminātha narrated it (the gītā) to kṛṣṇa in the ardhamāgadhī language which was later delivered by śrīkṛṣṇa in the battle field.