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Jaina Culture In Kannada Literature

By Mr. M. Chidananda Murthy

A

History of Jainism as a religion and a culture in Karnataka, we can say, in South India, is closely associated with Shravanabelgola. When the great saint Bhadrabahu during the famine that ravaged North India in the third (or second) century B.C., came to South India along with the Emperor Chandragupta, he settled down in Shravana­belgola and spent his last days there. A few of his disciples continued their journey to Tamilnadu, and spread Jainism there. There is still a cave on the Kalvappu or small hillock in Shravanabelgola known as "Bhadrabahu cave", and perhaps Bhadrabahu lived there. The coming of Bhadrabahu and a host of his disciples to South India is the beginning of Jainism in South India. And of course, this is a well known fact.

But a thing which is very little known is that Shravanabelgola as a town did not exist in the tenth century when the Gommata image was hewn out of the rock. There is a village by. name Haleya-Belgola or Old Belogna, about four kilometers north of Shravanabelgola. The very name suggests that it is older than another "Belgola". I have done extensive survey of the village and its surroundings. The name Belgola (White Pond) suggests the existence of a pond with pure water. The present pond at Shravanabelgola, is comparatively recent, as is suggested by an inscription in Shravanabelgola; it was caused to be built by the Mysore king Chikkadevaraya Wodeyar in the end of the seventeenth century, and this is proved by other evidence also. In Haleya Belgola, there is a big pond, too big for a small village like Haleya Belgola. There are a number of mutilated Jaina images on the bank of the pond and there is a fine but ruined Basadi near the village: the Basadi seems to have been built in the end of the tenth century. It has all the architectural features of the Ganga period (10th cent.) We can almost identify it with the Basadi said to have been built by Jinadevanna, son of Chavundaraya in the "Belgola" town, that is, Haleya Belgola. There ar8 other very strong reasons to believe that Haleya Belgola is the real original Belgola village mentioned in the inscriptions before the tenth century. Most probably, the Jain saints living on the smaller hillock were fed by the Jaina community which lived in Haleya Belgola during the whole period preceding the tenth century. Gommata image was being hewn in C.9S1 A.D. The area prior to C.981 A.D. was a holy place for the Jaina community because of the temples and the Jaina asceties on the small hillock. After the appearance of the Gommata on the bigger hillock, the area became a place of tourists' interest also, in the sense more and more Jains and other people began to visit the area. Shops came up. What was a relatively secluded and silent place became a busy area. The Jaina community living in Haleya Belgola naturally thought it to be more profitable to live closer to the hillocks. They slowly migrated from Haleya Belgola to Shravanabelgola area. The new township was also named as Belgola, since most of the settlers were from the Belgola (Now Old Belgola) village" To differentiate the two Belgolas, one, was named as Haleya Belgola (Old or original Belgola) and the other as Shravanabelgola, the Belgola with the Shramana or Jaina ascetics.

There are other evidence which clinch the issue that Haleya Belgola- was the original one. Now there are no more Jain'S in the village, although, as hinted earlier, it is full of Jaina monuments in the nature of inscriptions, mutilated Jaina images, a Basadi still fairly intact but not worshipped, folklore etc. There is architectural evidence to show that the migration of Jains from Haleya Belgola to Shravanabelgola was complete in the fourteenth century when there were serious frictions between the Jains and the Shrivaishnavas, during the time of Vijauanagara King Bukka (1368 A.D.)

B

Shravanabelgola occupies a unique place both in the history of Jainism and Karnataka culture. It is one place wherein we can have a glimse of all that is best in the cultural heritage which Karnataka can boast of. A search into the early phases of history of Kannada literature takes us to the excellent verses, muktakas, composed in a simple but highly developed language carved on rocks, extolling the death of Jaina saints through the practice of sallekhana vow on the smaller hillock at Shravanabelgola. The single verse poems approximately belong to the seventh century A.D. and no doubt they form the earliest specimens of Kannada poetry. As Shravanabelgola evolved as a center of Jainism and as Jainism grew in strength day by day, the Jains thought that they should cultivate the Kannada language for purposes of propogating their religion among the masses. Their medium was, of course Kavya. Although it was the Kadambas, the earlist Kannada kings of Brahmanical leanings to rule over Karanataka, who gave Kannada a prestigious place by making it the language of administration. It was perhaps in Shravanabelgola that attempts to cultivate the language for aesthetic purposes took place, The greatest service to Kannada literature by Jains is that they who were great Prakrit scholars made Kannada a fit vehicle of thought and feelings. At a time when Sanskrit and Prakrit dominated the literary scene in India, it goes to the credit of Jaina scholars for giving the regional languages a status they enjoy even now.

There was an argument in scholarly circles, put forth strongly by late T.S. Venkannayya that it was Buddhists who started writing in Kannada. I have shown in my papers that the argument does not stand the test of reason. There are traces of Buddhism throughout the history of Karnataka, from the period of Ashoka (third century B.C.) upto almost the sixteenth century when Kalya in Bangalore District was a flourishing town of Buddhists (as is attested in an inscription). But the thing to be clearly noted is that Buddhism was never a dominant religion, a religion of the masses. We have no evidence at all that Buddhist scholars or poets ever wrote anything in Kannada. In the case of Jainism which was the most popular religion in the eighth and the ninth century extending up to the twelfth century, the religion had the direct patronage of powerful dynasties and the poets were inspired to write in Kannada for propogating their religion. We can say that all early Kannada literature was Jain literature, The Rashtrakuta Emperor Nripatunga (850 A.D.) is supposed to be the author of the first available work in Kannada; his work Kavirajamarga is a work on poetics based on Dandin's Kavyadarsha. He or Shrivijaya, who, according to some scholars, is the real author of Kavirajamarga were followers of Jainism. Vaddaradhane (C.920 A.D.) is a collection of nineteen stories taken from some Prakrit commentary on Shivakoti's Brihatkatha. The stories which are in prose were a kind of spiritual arm our or Kavaca to protect an aspirant during his penance. Each of the stories describes how an ordinary human being, by virtue of his efforts and by undergoing untold physical and mental agony, could ward off the karmic material that surrounds his atma, and attains samyak-jnana, samyak­charitra and samyak-darshana, which are the true nature of pure atma. The prose style of the work is such that there is no other work in Kannada in prose form comparable to it. The work must have inspired hundreds of spiritual aspirants to lead a pure life.

The greatest poets in the campu form, Pampa, Ponna and Ranna belong to the tenth century and were all Jains, They seem to have viewed life through two angles: one from the secular or worldly point of view; another from the religious or spiritual point of view. They have expressed their secular experiences through what they call laukika classics, and their religious or spiritual feelings through their agamika kavyas. Pampa's Adipurana is a story of Adi Vrishabha Thirthanakara; it pictures how a soul immersed in mundane pleasures was caught up in the cycle of births and deaths, and after realising the nature of the futility of the temporary pleasures which the world hold for human beings, took to hard penance or tapas and became a realised soul, a Jina, ( lit. a conqueror) and a Thirthankara ( lit. a creator of passage through life), Jainism does not believe in God, and does not believe in the concept of divine mercy which can redeem a human being of all past sins at one stroke, Jainism strongly believes that human beings will be relieved of their sins only through their efforts: only after realizing the transitory nature of the world could they achieve moksha by sheer efforts. In other words, only human efforts can bring in moksha: this is possible by ridding of karma incurred by sins through sufferings and by acquiring punya by leading a good life as prescribed by Jaina ethics.

Jainism never values the external mundane achievements like richness, victories; rather it glorifies thespritual achievements, Control over one's passions is superior to control over the universe; it declares. This keynote of Jainism is echoed in the story of Bharata and Bahubali in Pampa's Adipurana. Bharata conquers the world through the help of his army; Bahubali defeats his elder brother Bharata and automatically becomes the supreme monarch. But this act of his makes him realise the hollowness of physical victory: he gives back the empire to Bharata and becomes a sanyasi and takes to penance.

The grand Gommata image on the hillock in Shravanabelgola is symbolic of the spiritual greatness of Bahubali. It is pertiment to note that Karnataka culture has valued tyaga more than bhoga, dharma-vijaya more than yuddha-vijaya, through at least four great stone images of Gommata in Shravanabelgola, Karkala, Venur and Dharmasthala, A fine blend of the worldliness and the other-worldliness is evident throughout the tenure of Kannada literature, This is mainly due to the impact of Jainism, and the story of Bharata and Bahubali on the society.

Pampabharata is the laukika or the secular epic of Pampa, The story is non­Jaina, no doubt. Pampa has carefully avoided bringing any Jaina element in his Bharata epic. The social values of his times like tyaga (charity), nanni (honesty), vira (heroism), Jasa (fame), cala (obstinacy), shuci (character) find eloquent expression through his characters. For example, Duryodhana stood for obstinacy, Kama for truthfulness, Bhima for heroism, Bhishma for character, Dharmaraja for dharma.

Although these were values pan-Indian in character, it goes to the credit of Pampa that the story of Mahabharata was employed to depict the dominant social and moral values, symbolizing them in the charactres of the Bharata story. The secular epic served the aesthetic function of poetry more than his religious epic. As he himself puts it in his Pampabharata- "I express laukika here, but Jinagama in my Adipurana".

Another great poet Ranna wrote Sahasabhimavijaya or Gadayuddha as laukika epic, but his agamika epic was Ajitapurana. For Ponna, his laukika epic was Bhuvanaika Ramabhyudaya (a work not extant), but his agamika epic was Shanthipurana. So the tradition continued.

Jainism produced scholars of. the first order. They had mastery over Sanskrit, Prakrit and of course their own language Kannada. Besides, they were well versed in all the darshanas including their own Jaina darshana. They were erudite scholars in astronomy or astrology, medicine, poetics, lexicography, art and architecture, Polity, mathematics, elephant-lore, horse-lore, and of course grammar. The poets themselves were great scholars and many of them like Ponna were Ubhaya-kavis, poets who could write poetry in two languages as Kannada and Sanskrit. A perusal of Jaina classics reveal that they are encyclopaedia in nature. A mastery over any classic needed a thorough knowledge of languages, sciences and darshanas. Nemichandra, the author of Lilavathiprabandha and Neminathapurana was a remarkable scholar of his times (twelfth century). Ranna who was mentioned earlier was also a grammarian and a lexicographer. Chavundaraya, the Ganga minister who had the Gommata image carved in Shravanabelgola was himself a scholar and a man of letters. His Cha-vundarayapurana which is in its tenth century Kannada prose, narrates the stories of sixtythree great personages of Jaina tradition (trishashti-shalaka-purushas). The number includes twentyfour Thirthanakaras, twelve Emperors, nine Baladevas, nine Vasudevas and nine Prati-vasudevas.

Janna of the thirteenth century, has written on the story of Yashodhara and on the Thirthankara Ananthanatha. The former is a very popular story usually recited in vratas or popular rites like Jivadayashtami. The story is richly didactic stressing the virtue of non-killing (jivadaya Jainadharma). Daya or compassion to beings, both human and non-human, is the first and foremost of the vratas, both of the mahavratas to be practised by Jaina sanyasis (ahimsa, satya, asteya, bramhacarya, aparigraha) and of the anuvratas which are the same as above, but not so strictly observed. Anuvratas are prescribed to be observed by the laity. For example, according to ahimsa of the mahavratas, a monk should never kill or wound; he should avoid completely all kinds of violence including violence through harsh or abusive language. His ahimsa rite has no concessions. But for a Jaina layman it is impossible to observe the vow in its entirety. He may unintentionally kill animals while ploughing or even walking. He may have to fight wars killing human beings. These are unavoidable, yet the laymen should observe the jivadayastamivrata once a year to atone for the himsa or violence which they have committed unknowingly, through fasting. During the vrata, the story of Yashodhara is narrated. It is narrated that sankalpahimsa or intentional violnence is a sin. Yashodhara was a prince, he had to kill enemies in wars. His sword was always "red in colour because of the blood in wars". At one stage he had to sacrifice a fowl made of corn flour. Giving sacrifices to appease gods or goddesses is sankalpihimsa because it can be avoided. In the case of Yashodhara, even. though he sacrified a fowl made of corn flour, he was all the while under a mental stress that he was "sacrificing an animal" to a goddess; he committed no physical himsa, but the himsa awareness haunted him. This sin made him take many births and undergo untold miseries. If a mere himsa bhava could bring in misery to a human being, what about real himsa or an act of killing? So, avoid killing­that is the moral message carried and delivered by the story. Janna's narration of the story has made .his kavya immemorable in Kannada literature. Incidentally, he is also an author on a book on erotics; if a person was to be a scholar, he was to be well read even in Kamashastra!

As already suggested early, Jaina authors who were great scholars, wrote many scientific works in Kannada. Sridharacharya's work on Astronomy (or Astrology), Mangaraja's work on medicine, Rajaditya's work on mathematics are only a few contributions to be mentioned here. In. the field of grammar, works by Nagavarma, Keshiraja Bhattakalanka may be mentioned here. Grammars on Kannada language are in Sanskrit language. As regards lexicography, the name of Ranna, Nagavarma deserve mention here. Jains made Kannada a fit vehicle for poetry, as well as scientific literature.

Nayasena's Dharmamrita and Brahmashiva's Samayaparikshe deserve a special mention, not because their works are great poetry, but because of the special intention with which their works were written. Nayasena wrote his work in the early part of the twelfth century, Brahmashiva in the latter half. Jainism which was the most dominant religion in the tenth century had begun to lose its hold on the society. Two factors contributed to its decline-one was political, and the other socio-religious. By the end of the tenth century, the reign of the Rashtakuta kings and the Ganga kings ended and this gave a rude jolt to the spreading of Jainism. Because, both the dynasties ruling in the north and south Karnataka, patronized Jainism. Secondly, Shaivism with its offshoot Virashaivism had begun to take strong roots in the masses, and the socio­religious movement of Bassa in the middle of the twlfth century with its insistence on bhakti towards God and social equality of all Shiva bhaktas or followers of Shiva began to make Inroads into the bastion of Jainism. In this background, Nayasena no doubt wrote in champu, a form no doubt favoured by the elite and the scholars, but the mode of expression which he employed was more folkloristic rather than scholastic. There was more of deshi than of margi element in his work. The intention of the author was to reach the common man through writing and popularise Jainism and its teachings. But the real threat to Jainism actually came after Nayasena in the form of a Virashaiva mass movement. An inscription of the period requests people not to desert Jainism". Brahmashiva as an author had to respond to the agony undegoing by his religion. In his Samayaparikshe he puts to test all faiths of his period. Jainisam, Buddhism. Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Kapalika, Saura, Shakta. He reviews their teachings and carefully analyses all the practices of the followers of those faiths. He severely criticizes all other religions except his own, which he says, is the best.

Whether Brahmashiva's test Was an objective one or whether he was strongly biassed towards Jainism, his own religion, is some thing about which we need not worry much. His intention clearly was to prove that Jainism was the best religion, and to convince people not to desert the religion. But one cannot overlook the fact that Bramhashiva gave to Kannada the first satirical work. His language sometimes is so sharp, and criticism pointed that his work is comparable to any modern social criticism. Besides, he has supplied us a fund of valuable information regarding religious faiths, their beliefs, and actual practices, different communities and castes, folklore flora and fauna, agriculture, village gods and goddesses etc. Nayasena who preceded Brahmashiva is, not so pungent but he was the first to argue strongly in favour of using native Kannada words in the poetic diction; he protests using Sanskrit borrowed words indiscriminately.

This is not the place to discuss the Virashaiva movement and its result, the vacana literature. The vacana literature was something very unlike the earlier literature which was mainly Jaina. But we should not forget that the movement was not directed mainly against Jainism; it was more anti-Brahmanical. Vacana form was very different in the sense it was not narrative, the authors not interested in royal courts nor the royal patronage, not interested which was 'poetry' or 'not poetry'. The form was simple in the form of short compositions which were neither prose nor verse, but something in between. Vacanas employed the language of men for expression, because the literature was mainly meant for the common man. Yet vacana composers drew inspiration from Jaina poets like Nayasena, as shown by comparative studies. If the Virashaiva vacana writers, many of them certainly eminent Sanskritists, cared a more for Kannada and composed in Kannada, certainly they followed the path already tread by Jains who had employed Kannada for religious writings. Virashaivism advocated education for women, and here also Jainism showed the way. Because Jainism never forbid educating women; many women followers of Jains were not only literates, but were deeply well-read. Many Jain women saints were scholars, although we do not have any evidence to prove that they took to writing in Kannada. Great women like Attimabbe, Queens like Shanthala were not only educated but promoted literature and fine arts to a great extant.

There were enlightened women among Jains, and this fact inspired the Virshaiva Movement. While Vedic Brahminism was not favourable to women's education, Jainism and later Virashaivism were positively in favour of imparting education to women and make them take active part in social activities. A look at the social and literary history of Karanataka reveals that during the Virashiva movement, at least, twenty seven women writers, one of them an erst-while prostitute, another coming from the Harijan caste, composed Vacanas in Kannada.

It may not be out of place to give a picture of the socio-religious activities of Attimabbe, a grest woman of not only Karnataka but of India, A clear picture of her activities is available in Ranna's epic-poem Ajitapurana composed in 993 A. D. She came from a family of great administrators and scholars, Her father Mallapayya was proficient both in shastra and shaastra in other words he was both warrior and a scholar. It was he who patronized Kavichakravarti Ponna compose his Shanthipurana in the middle of the tenth century, Her father-in-law Dhallapa was a very influential man in the Rashtrakuta administration, It is said that he was equal to the emperor in wealth: Ranna proclaims that the only difference between Dhallapa and the Emperor was, whereas the Emperor had a throne and Dhallapa did not possess one. Her uncle, her husband and even her son were recognised heroes of their time, In her prime of youth, her husband Nagadeva died, According to her younger sister Gundamabbe, the second wife of Nagadeva, there were only two alternatives to a Kulavadhu: either Jinadikshacharana, a life strictly according to Jaina prescriptions, or following the deceased husband committing Sahagamana. Gundamabbe argues with Attimabbe that since Attimabbe has a son, she should live to take care of him, She seeks the blessings of Attimabbe and enters the funeral pyre. Attimabbe, a widow, was not disheartened; she devoted herself to a religious life and to social activities, She patronised Ranna and made him to write Ajitapurana. Ponna's Shanthipurana which was caused to be written by her father and her uncle, somehow did not popularize. She was deeply pained at it and had one thousand manuscripts copied and freely distributed as shastradana. She built a beautiful temple for Jina at Lakkundi in l007 A. D. She encouraged sculptures and financed them to carve one thousand five hundred Jina images. Being a rich lady, she was generous to the core; in fact, she was known as dana cintamani. A lady living an austere life, she became a legend in her own times. She even visited Shravanabelgola and had darshan of the newly carved Gommata, She is a symbol of that is best in Jaina culture,

Jainism may not be a prominent religion now in Karnataka, But its imprint on Karnataka history, culture and literature is so ever-lasting that Jainism and Karnataka history are alsmost inseparable.

 

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Author : By Mr. M. Chidananda Murthy, Professor of Kannada ( Retd. ) Bangalore University

Article Source : Book "Rishabh Saurabh" Published on the occasion of Seminar on "Jaina Heritage of Karnataka, held at Bangalore ( Organised By Rishabh Dev Foundation, Delhi ) on 4th & 5th April 1994"

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