Well, it is a subject of great interest and detailed and unbiased research.I will be writing on this subject in subsequent series based on the facts I find in the writings of Various scholars.
I was reading yesterday an online google-book on the history of jainism by Mr.Humphrey.
Acharya Jinsen who lived in the 8th-9th century A.D. is a very important acharya in Jainism.He has written many texts and one of them is Adipuran.
In one of the chapters of this text.He says to Jain lay people to put out all the idols of non-jain devi devatas from their houses and to stop their worship.Well, this gives us a hint that during this time , the Jain householders must be worshiping non-jain gods also.
Lord Parshvanathji is special.His idols and his temples are maximum in number.
What can be its reason???
I din't want to hurt anybody's feeling but would like to surely say that one of its reason is the association of the snake-god and goddess Dharnendra and Padmaavati with Lord Parshvanathji.
In the Ajanta caves , we can see idol of Lord Parshvanathji with Padmavati and Dharnendra protecting him from the attack of the demon Kamatha.
But, it must be noted that such attacks are called as "Upsargs" and upsargs cannot occur after kevalgyan that is after attaining the omniscience. And, Jains are to worship a person as God only after he become a Kevali.
So, by seeing the hood of snake on the head of Lord Parshvanathji, one thing can come to our minds that this idol may represent him before the attainment of Kevalgyaan.However, let me also say that, this type of Idol can also represnt Lord Parshvanathaji who Just got kevalgayn and so the sankehood by Padmavati was still their for a moment and in this idol can be worshiped as that of Omniscient Parshvanathji.But, this is my idea, I don't know how many of you will agree to it, but tto satisfy myself with the snakehood on the head of a kevali, I need to have a belief of this kind, so that it doesn't contradicts with the very basic concept of Jainism that everything which happens to person is due to his own karmas.So if attack is occurring to you, means you ghaatiya karmas are still there.
Well, Padmavati and Dharnendra has a perfect role in the life of Lord Parshvanath and so if they were declared as his shaashan devi-devtas, then it could be digested.But what about other Tirthankars??? For example Ambika or Kushumandilini who is the shaashan devi of Lord Neminath.There is no such story sort of thing in this case.You also see the names of few other shaashan devis of Jain tirthankars like Gauri,Durga,Jwalamalini etc. All these have great admiration with the same name and nearly same get-up in hindus also.
What was the need of these shaashan devi-devtas???
Why you have to worship them, when you know that you get everything as per your karmas only.
Well, there are many more such questions and the history even gives us reasonable answers for this.
8th century Acarya Jinsen had a significant and major role in writing down the general rules or say code of conduct etc for Jains.For instance, according to some sources, it is said that He was the first to write about Janeeyu or yagyopaveet that is sacred thread accross the neck upto the belly and back diagonally.This yagyopaveet was very peculiar in brahminism and was to wore by the so-called upper castes men like ksahtriyas, brahmins and vaishyas.
So, it must have been something that which signifies sacredness or purity etc.In Jainism, one of our scholars (whom I respect a lot) said to me in his mail that as per jainism, this yagyopaveet has three threads which signified right faith, right knowledge and right conduct respectively.But, I personally would like to call it as Jainisation of a brahminical ritual.
This ritual , I just gave as an initial example and the real story is now to come.Well, similarly many of brahminical deities were Jainised during this period.Some sources even says that during this same period the female deities got entry into all the three major religions of India.In hinduism or brahminism they entered as Kaili, Durga etc.In buddhism, they entered as Tara devi and in Jainism as Yakshinis or shaashan devis like Padmavati, Kali,Durga etc.
To begin with let us see the socio-cultural scenario of this time.Well, the vedic sacrificial rituals were very much minimised by the Jainism and Buddhism's might.But then brahmins took to other deities and did splendid idol worship with bhakti and general rituals and good mythological stories full of simplicity and magic.A house holder needs a lot of things in his life like health, wealth, power, progeny etc.So, it is very simple for him to worship a god or goddess who can promise to give all these worldly pleasures along with a promise to take care of him in eternal life and give him moksha or salvation.It was really now very simple for a common householder to follow these.
The Jains were surrounded by a vast majority of non-jains who were following these things.Let us again see what Acarya Jinsen says in his Adipuran.He says that a person who has true faith Jainism should remove the idols of false gods or mithya devi-devtas from their houses.He should, in public manner, take them somewhere else and leave or abondan them.He shoud say to them that till now he worshiped and respected you (mithya or false gods) out of ignorance.But now the time has come for us to pray our own true gods (Samyak devtas), so do not get angry and you (false gods) can go wherever you want.
So, this shows that during this period there were non-jain god being worshiped by jains.And, now the jain munis were trying to bring the jain laymen back to pure jainism.But, this would not have been so simple.
The term "Samyak-devtaas" as I understand must be The Passionless kevali or omnicient Jinas.But there are scholars who consider these samyak-devtas as Jain-guardian angels like Dharnendra and Padmavati etc.
No doubt, Dharnendra and Padmavati were the first of this kind to be accepted in Jain temples along with Jinas as they ahve a perfect role in the real life story of Lord Parshvanath.So, I feel that their idols must have been initially just to show the picture or jhanki of a real incident of Lord Parshvanath's life.Then they were also respected along with the worship of Lord Prashvanath.Initially, they were respected or worshiped only along with the Jinas's idol.But later on, they got a separate seat inside or just outside the Jinas's temple and then they were individually and independently worshiped.
Well,the some kind of acceptance and recognition of the devi-devtas in Jainism paved a way for their independent worship by the Jains without being tagged as going outside the boundaries of Jainism.
But, then appeared a great change,, though gradually.These devi-devtas cannot be made out or differentiated from their Hindu or brahminical counterparts.Even many of the Jain yakshinis names like Kali, Mahakali,Gauri, Ambika etc are having their counterparts with the same names in Brahminism.
I would like to add here one important thing that though Jains considers male sex to be more powerful in better but in case of worship of devi-devtas it is just the opposite.Padmavati is famous but Dharnendra is not so famous.We know Ambika or Kushumandilini devi but I myself don't know the name of her male counterpart or her yakasha.
Why this was there,I can't say.Well, certainly we cannot hypothesize that the yakshinis were more powerful than their yakshas as it is no where mentioned in any of the Jain literature.
At Girnarji, we can find a big temple of Ambika devi who is the shaashan devi of Lord Neminathji who got salvation from the Girnarji tirths.Though this temple is under the hindus but even amny Jains do also go to this temple as they considers the devi as the shaashan devi of Neminath.
Ambika devi is better known as Kushumandilini devi in South India.In sravanbelgola where the main idol is of Lord Bahubali, we can find a dominance of Kushumandilini devi, though she is no way related with Bhagwan Bahubali.
If we arrange the devis in their decreasing order of popularity then of course Padmavati is first followed by Kushumandilini and Chakreshwari devi 9the shaashan devi of Lord Rishabhdevji).It would be worth mentioning that we have one Taradevi also as one of the shaash devis in Jainism.Remember, that a goddess with the name Taradevi is the main goddess in Buddhism.
There are a lot of stories about the life of Bhagwan Rishbhdevji but the mention of Chakreshwari devi is not so prominent and of course till date I have not heard any of her role in the real life story of Lord Rishabhdevji.But we can find her idols in so many temples.And not to get surprised by her famous independent temple in Punjab do exists till today.Humcha is a famous Jain tirth in Karanataka which is mostly dedicated to Padmavati and to our surprise there , her master Bhagwan Sri Parshvantha is not the main centre of faith.
Then, when the independent positions , seats , temples and even tirths were given to these devis then their worship became more and more splendid and took all it can from the contemprory hinduism or Brahminical rituals which gave rise to a new regime of Yatis in Swetamabers and Bhattaraks in Digambers.
Well,the splendid form of worship included the abhisek or giving bath to the idols with water, milk, curd, sandal, fruit-juices etc,flower garlands, fruits and also sweets and so on.Even the concept of Prasad came into Jainism.The prasad is the flower and sweets etc given to the devotees after offering the same to the idol of the deity.
In North India, we have a culture of growing wheat plants in small pots during navratri for 9 days by hindus and is called as "Jawareys".Well,in South India, this practice of Jawareys is done by few jains also in Jain temples for these shaashan devis.Even they celebrate Navratri.
The specialised worship of these deities also brought the cult of yantras in Jainism like Ghantakaran yantra etc.
Well, in these situations who will be expected to study texts like Samyasarji which talks about only the Soul !!! People virtually lost the concept of God in Jainism.If by worshiping some devi-devtas they gives you wealth, health etc then what is the imporatnce of Karma theory and what is the difference between Jainism and Hinduism.Also, the accommodation of the caste system in Jainism, diepersed its uniqueness.
But, everything has its own plus and minus points.This form of Jainism was suitable to withstand the forces of Bhakti movements, Shankracharyas etc.
Due to devi-devtas similar to that of Hindus, the Jain temples got a virtual security from the orthodox hindus or rather the brahmins.
Bhattaraks also were successful in preserving our Jain texts.They were able to keep up the jains as jains that is they prevented their conversion to Brahaminism.
Bhattaraks were a powerful institution and many seats of bhattraks were established in North India also.Even in Bundelkhand's Kundalpur there used to be a bhattarak's seat.
But, again the time changed and new force called Muslims enetred the land from the north-west.They were against the idol-worship and there began a new era in which all these rituals etc were being questioned even by the locals like Kabirdas etc.These inspired Jains and hindus both.As a result sthanakwasi sect came upo in sewtambers , Taranpanthis in Digambers came up.At the same time sikhism also originated.Remember all these faiths are against the idol-worship and its rituals.Sthankawasi even do not recognise many aagams of murtipujak swetambers which are dedicated to idol-worship or its rituals.
But all these were in north and west India where the muslim influence was prominent , while in South the splendid and ritualistic form of religion continued somehow.
Many Scholars like Sri Banarsidasji etc started to study the ancient text of Jainisma and soon found out that the rituals and devi-devtas etc are alien to the real teachings of the omniscient Jinas.They started a movement which was based on the teachings and texts of great Jain Acharyas like Sri Kundkund and this movement finally gave rise to the Terapanth of Digamber Jains (It is different from the terapanth of Swetamber Jains).
The Terapanthi-digambers do not worship any devi-devtas except for the veetragi Jinendra bhagwan, Jiana texts and Veetragi munis.They do not offer flowers, panchamrith abhisek, sweets, food, prasad etc.They don't do worship after the sunset.They do not regards Bhattaraks as their gurus.
The remaining panth who continued to follow Bhattaraks and shaashan devi-devtas etc were eventually called as Beespanthis.
Now, it is to be noted that though there were a lot of swetamber jain munis during the mughal period in the North and western India, but the digamber munis were almost absent in the North India during the muslim period.In south India, apart from the bhattaraks, the digamber munios used to be there but very less in number.
In the year 1760, a saint from the sthanakwasi swetamber tradition named as Sri Bhikkanandiji or Acharya Sri Bhikshu founded a new sect called as Terapanth of swetamabers.He has some differences with his guru.Terapanth of Swetamber tradition is against idol-worship and they have only one acharya at a time.They lay importance to 5 anuvratas, 3 guptis and 5 samitis.
We can see that due to the emergence of a reformist terapanth in digamber jainism at the time of Akbar by Banaridasji etc , somehow curbed the increase in the conversion of the digamber Jains to the non-idol worshiping Taranpanth as the terapanth in itself provided a lot of reforms from the ritualistic tradition to the digambers of North and Western India who were living in the Muslim dominance.
In Terapanthi Digamabers Pt. Daulatramji, Pt.Todarmalji etc wrote many books based on the ancient jain texts in the local languages.The Chhehdhala of Pandit Daulatramji has a significant role in the religious lives of Digamber Jains of North and Central India.
In the 20th century, Acharya Shantisagarji revived the digamber muni tradition again.He faced a lot of difficulties but somehow he was successful.I personally feel that the tolerant and modern Britishers also were a great factor in this.
After him a lot of Digamber munis came up and today they are hundreds in number.
But, there occurred some differences in between the digamber munis so as to support the bhattarak tradition and the Shaashan devi-devtas or not.
Now, a days the ones who supporst them are called as beespanth sadhus while those who do not support them are called as the terapanthi sadhus.But, again, both there types of munis are respected and worshiped by all the types of Digamber lay-jains.
In the mid-20th century, a sthankwasi swetamber muni in Gujarat, got influenced by Sri Samyasarji text of Digamber tradition and he changed his faith to a Digamber Jain.His name was Kanji Swami.But, he didn't became a digamber or naked muni.He used to wear whilte clothes like a brahmachari of Digamber tradition.He laid importance on the Nishchay point of view that the real point of view and his followers were against the conduct of the present-day munis.The difference of Nishchay and vyavhar nay or point of views became severe and the a new panth called Kanjipanth or Songarhis was established.They believe in digamber munis but says that at present there is no true digamber jain muni.Though they lkay emphasis on the nishchay point of view but they also conduct panchkalyanak gajrath mahotsav etc.
Last, but not least, to build-up a tradition behind a great person is a very common thing.Recently, some disciple of Sri Kanji Swami claimed that he has become a Tirthankar at Videh kshetra.But many of his followers didn't accepted it and so God knows and not any surprise if we see two panths in the Kanjipanth itself.
Recently, many Sthanakwasi munis have started to join the causes of Jina idols and temples also.
The story will continue, but from my side I have finished my write-up.
Regards.
Dr Amit Prakash Jain
