Kotishila

[Rolf Heiner Koch]

I work now for decades (pardon about 1 decade)
about the Prakrit literature of the Jains that
follows on the canonical scripts, e. g. mainly the
still unpublished commentaries on the Avashyakas,
which despite of the title delivers a complete
picture of the Jain religious system in
post-canonical time. As you propably know, this
literature suggests to present all the stuff which
is still missing for a complete description of the
Jain religion.
Apart of the religious themes this sources record
a huge amount of tales and illustration, (one part
about the namaskara-prayer includes more then 100
illustrations, which I published critically on my
Ph D - beside a translation).
Today we can already speak definitly: Hemacandras
63carita is a poetic Sanskrit work that is based
on this source,  a great part of the tales
recorded in 63carita is already known in the early
Prakrit version of these commentaries.
I did never search for Jain tales about Krisna.
Laksmana etc, but I also never came across any
story which mentioned this names.
Just the last week I took the first time a view to
the Harivamsapurana, here there seems to be the
stories you are looking for and I suppose that you
will find some early parts of the stories of the
Harivamsapurana in the Vasudevahindi.
There is an absolut important book for you about
the Harivamsapurana from
Ludwig Alsdorf, Harivamsapurana, Alt- und
Neu-Indische Studien, 5 (1936) - edited at the
University of Hamburg.
While this book is written in German you may find
some english references to this book in the
english translation of the Vasudevahindi:
Ch. Jain, The Vasudevahindi, L. D. Series
(Ahmedabad, 1977)
from the same author:
Life in Ancient India as depicted in the Jaina
canon, Delhi, 1984.
See Further: Abhidhanarajendra and the Agamic
Index Prakrit Proper Names.
Good Luck
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Yigal Bronner <yigal at MD2.VSNL.NET.IN>
An: INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK
<INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK>
Datum: Freitag, 16. Januar 1998 03:06
Betreff: Re: Kotishila


>>If you kindly write more clearly what Jain
Puranas
>>are, and what you mean with Jain Ramayana and
>>Mahabharata I may probably help you.
>>
>I am not particular about a definition of Jain
Puranas--basically any
>version of the lives of some or all of the 63
Zalaakapurushas, including
>the last two sets among the nine sets of
vasudevas, baladevas and
>prativasudevas. These sets make for the heroes of
the Jain Ramayanas and
>Mahabharatas. In Jain Ramayanas, the set consists
of Rama (Padma, Pauma)
>Laksmana and Ravana, whose story is told in
numerous versions beginning
>with Vimalasuri's Paumacariya. The Mahabharata
story usually centers more
>on the exploits of Baladeva (Balarama), Krishna
and Jarasandha than on the
>Pandava-Kaurava conflict in texts such as the
Harivamsapurana or the
>Pandavacarita.
>I am working on a poem by a Jain writer that
connects both Laksmana and
>Krshna to the story of lifting Kotishila, and I
would like to know whether
>or not the poet is drawing on earlier tradition,
and how exactly the
>traditional story goes.
>Thanks for any tip or clue,
>Yigal Bronner.
>