Article: Jain Purāṇas

Indrabhūti Gautama preaches
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As in the Hindu Purāṇas, a Jain Purāṇa generally does not immediately commence with the main story, after which it is named. Parallel to the Hindu setting of bards and distinguished sages who are in the forest for a ritual, the Jain Purāṇas have their own specific sacred narrative setting, lending more authority to the story.

In the Jain texts, this setting is the samavasaraṇa or ‘universal assembly’ of Mahāvīra. King Śreṇika, the principal ruler who attends Mahāvīra’s universal assembly, asks about a particular great man. Indrabhuti Gautama, the Jina‘s first disciple, answers by telling the story.

Plants and two-sensed beings
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The Jain Purāṇas, and Jain narrative literature in general, have been described as a means through which Jain authors could spread their ideology. Contrary to what one might expect in view of this, passages expounding the Jain doctrine are generally few in these texts. They typically occur when a protagonist encounters a muni and function as a pause in the narrative, rather than serving a strictly ideological purpose.

More important is the indirect way in which the central Jain doctrine of karman is explained through the Jain Purāṇas in the many stories of the previous and future births of the main characters. Up to ten previous births are narrated for some characters, demonstrating how the power of karman crosses multiple lifetimes and how a soul may become a mahā-puruṣa.

The word ‘Kannada’ in Kannada script
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Jain Purāṇas have been composed in various languages, ranging from the classical literary languages of Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhraṃśa to vernacular languages such as Kannada, Gujarati and Hindi.

Jain purāṇas may be divided into three kinds of tale. The first type follows the pattern set in the earliest known purāṇa, which is a version of the Sanskrit epic poem of the Rāmāyaṇa. Texts in this category focus on just one or a few ‘great men’.

The second type of purāṇa is the mahā-purāṇa, which describes the lives of all the mahā-puruṣas – great men.

The third type groups together māhātmyas, which describe the ‘greatness’ of particular pilgrimage sites.

Nemi and Kr̥ṣṇa
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The earliest available Jain Purāṇa is the Paümacariyam – Deeds of Padma – in Māhārāṣṭrī Prakrit. Composed by Vimala-sūri, it is in effect a Jain version of the popular epic Rāmāyaṇa, and dates from the fifth century at the latest. The tale takes its name from the protagonist Rāma, who is here called Padma. He and the main characters of this story – his brother Lakṣmaṇa and their enemy Rāvaṇa – are the eighth Baladeva, Vāsudeva and Prati-vāsudeva of this time period. The tale of Rāma or Padma was very popular and well known among Jains.

Another popular group within this type of Jain purāṇas are those called Harivaṃśa-purāṇas – Purāṇa of the Hari Dynasty – which focus on the life of the ninth Vāsudeva, Baladeva and Prati-vāsudeva. These are, respectively Kṛṣṇa, his brother Balarāma and their enemy Jarāsandha. These Jain Harivaṃśa-purāṇas also include the biography of the 22nd Jina Neminātha or Lord Nemi, who is the cousin of Kṛṣṇa. Hence they are often named Neminātha-caritras or variants, after Nemi. The earliest Harivaṃśa-purāṇa was composed by Jinasena Punnāṭa in 783.

Purāṇas dealing with one of the great men are very numerous. They include, for instance, the:

• Śāntinātha-purāṇa – Purāṇa of Śāntinātha – about the 16th Jina Śāntinātha or Lord Śānti, by Śubhacandra in the 17th century
• Munisuvratasvāmi-caritra – Biography of Lord Munisuvrata – about the 20th Jina Munisuvratanātha or Lord Munisuvrata, by Candra-sūri in the 12th century.

Birth and marriage of Ṛṣabha
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Aside from purāṇas which narrate the lives of one or a few of the śalākā-puruṣas, Jain authors also created a category called mahā-purāṇa – ‘great purāṇa’ – echoing the Hindu term. In the Jain context, a mahā-purāṇa narrates the lives of all the mahā-puruṣas.

The earliest among these is the Caüppaṇṇa-mahā-purisa-cariya – Deeds of the 54 Great Men – by the Śvetāmbara sage Śīlāṅka (868–89). In Śīlāṅka’s categorisation, the nine Prati-vāsudevas are not considered mahā-puruṣas, hence the reduced number of 54 instead of the more traditional 63. Though Śīlāṅka’s was the earliest, his narration is by no means the most influential.

The most famous and authoritative Jain mahā-purāṇa was composed in the ninth century by the celebrated Digambara scholar Jinasena, teacher of the great Rāṣṭrakūṭa ruler Amoghavarṣa I. Jinasena was unable to finish the entire mahā-purāṇa so his chapters cover only the life of the first Jina Ṛṣabhanātha or Lord Ṛṣabha and his son Bharata, the first Cakravartin. It is therefore named Ādi-purāṇa – Purāṇa of the First [Jina].

The Ādi-purāṇa was supplemented with the Uttara-purāṇa – Purāṇa of the Remaining [Great Men] – by Jinasena’s pupil Guṇabhadra. These two compositions together bear the full title Triṣaṣṭi-lakṣaṇa-śrī-mahā-purāṇa-saṅgraha – Compendium of the Noble Mahā-purāṇa of the Characteristics of the 63 [Great Men]. Guṇabhadra also calls the text an itihāsa – ‘traditional history’ – and a dharma-śāstra – ‘law-book’. Moreover, as it also serves as a ritual manual, it therefore exhibits some encyclopaedic characteristics, similar to some of the Hindu Purāṇas.

Nowadays, the best-known mahā-purāṇa is the Triṣaṣṭi-śalākā-puruṣa-caritra – Deeds of the 63 Great Men – by the Śvetāmbara Hemacandra. Written in the 12th century, it was the first mahā-purāṇa to be fully translated into English, and took Helen Johnson 31 years to publish, beginning in 1931.

Shatrunjaya temple compounds
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Jain authors also composed a few māhātmyas describing the ‘greatness’ of particular pilgrimage sites.

The most famous is the Śatruñjaya-māhātmya by Dhaneśvara-sūri, written around 1100, glorifying the best-known Śvetāmbara site, Mount Śatruñjaya in Gujarat.

Aside from this, there is also the Sammedaśikhara-māhātmya by Devadatta (1800), which celebrates Mount Sammeta in Bihar, where no fewer than 20 out of the 24 Jinas of the present time period are said to have attained enlightenment.

These māhātmyas depict when and how these holy places came to be sacred, through association with one or more Jinas. Whereas Hindu māhātmyas are generally incorporated into a larger purāṇa, Jain māhātmyas are individual compositions.