''Vasudeva-hindi'' (
IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...
: Vasudevahiṇḍī, "Vasudeva's wanderings") is a
Jain text
Jain literature (Sanskrit: जैन साहित्य) refers to the literature of the Jain religion. It is a vast and ancient literary tradition, which was initially transmitted orally. The oldest surviving material is contained in the ca ...
by Sangha-dasa, probably from 5th century India. The text narrates several stories in the form of nested narrative layers. The main story is borrowed from
Gunadhya
Guṇāḍhya is the Sanskrit name of the sixth-century Indian author of the '' Bṛhatkathā'', a large collection of tales attested by Daṇḍin, the author of the ''Kavyadarsha'', Subandhu, the author of ''Vasavadatta'', and Bāṇabhaṭ ...
's ''
Brihat-katha'', with the original hero Nara-vahana-datta replaced by
Krishna
Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...
's father
Vasudeva
According to Hindu scriptures, Vasudeva (Sanskrit: वसुदेव, IAST: ''Vasudeva''), also called Anakadundubhi, (''anakas'' and ''dundubhis'' both refer to ''drums'', after the musicians who played these instruments at the time of his b ...
.
Authorship and date
''Vasudeva-hindi'' is the oldest surviving text of the Jain narrative literature. The Jain monk Sangha-dasa wrote it in archaic
Maharashtri Prakrit
Maharashtri or Maharashtri Prakrit ('), is a Prakrit language of ancient as well as medieval India and the ancestor of Marathi and Konkani.
Maharashtri Prakrit was commonly spoken until 875 CEV.Rajwade, ''Maharashtrache prachin rajyakarte'' language.
The author claims that the legend of Vasudeva was first told by
Mahavira
Mahavira (Sanskrit: महावीर) also known as Vardhaman, was the 24th ''tirthankara'' (supreme preacher) of Jainism. He was the spiritual successor of the 23rd ''tirthankara'' Parshvanatha. Mahavira was born in the early part of the 6t ...
's pupil
Sudharman
Sudharmaswami ( sa, Sudharmāsvāmī or Sudharman; 607 BC – 507 BC) was the fifth ganadhara of Mahavira. All the current Jain acharyas and monks follow his rule.
Life
Sudharmaswami was the spiritual successor of Indrabhuti Gautama in religi ...
to his disciple
Jambu, and since then, the story was transmitted to the author through a series of teachers and disciples.
The text was definitely composed before 610 CE, when Jina-bhadra-gani Kshama-shramana refers to it in his ''Visheshana Vati''. The author dates the text to the year 530 of an unspecified
calendar era
A calendar era is the period of time elapsed since one ''epoch'' of a calendar and, if it exists, before the next one. For example, it is the year as per the Gregorian calendar, which numbers its years in the Western Christian era (the Coptic ...
. Scholars K.R. Chandra and
M.A. Dhaky believe that the era is the
Vikrama Samvat
Vikram Samvat (IAST: ''Vikrama Samvat''; abbreviated VS) or Bikram Sambat B.S. and also known as the Vikrami calendar, is a Hindu calendar historically used in the Indian subcontinent. Vikram Samvat is generally 57 years ahead of Gregorian Calend ...
, and thus, date the text to 473 CE. Indologist
J.C. Jain writes that the date of ''Vasudeva-hindi'' has been "fixed" as the end of the 3rd century, but Indologist
John E. Cort notes that there is no scholarly consensus on this, and Jain authors tend to date their texts as early as possible.
U.P. Shah dates the text to early 5th century or a little earlier, while M.N.P. Tiwari dates it to mid-6th century.
Some parts of the text, such as ''Dhammilla-hindi'', are a later addition to the original text.
Contents
The text narrates the legend of
Krishna
Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...
's father
Vasudeva
According to Hindu scriptures, Vasudeva (Sanskrit: वसुदेव, IAST: ''Vasudeva''), also called Anakadundubhi, (''anakas'' and ''dundubhis'' both refer to ''drums'', after the musicians who played these instruments at the time of his b ...
. It is in form of several narrative layers, featuring several characters and stories from different times and places.
The main story is borrowed from
Gunadhya
Guṇāḍhya is the Sanskrit name of the sixth-century Indian author of the '' Bṛhatkathā'', a large collection of tales attested by Daṇḍin, the author of the ''Kavyadarsha'', Subandhu, the author of ''Vasavadatta'', and Bāṇabhaṭ ...
's ''
Brihat-katha'' tradition, in which the hero is Nara-vahana-datta instead of Vasudeva.
The text also includes materials from
Vaishnavite
Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...
texts such as ''
Harivamsa
The ''Harivamsa'' ( , literally "the genealogy of Hari") is an important work of Sanskrit literature, containing 16,374 shlokas, mostly in the '' anustubh'' metre. The text is also known as the ''Harivamsa Purana.'' This text is believed to ...
'' and ''
Vishnu Purana
The Vishnu Purana (IAST:, sa, विष्णुपुराण) is one of the eighteen Puranas#Mahapuranas, Mahapuranas, a genre of ancient and medieval texts of Hinduism. It is an important Pancharatra text in the Vaishnavism literature c ...
''. The author of ''Vasudeva-hindi'' quotes long passages from Jain canonical texts such as ''
Samavayanga Sutra
Samavayanga Sutra (c. 3rd-4th century BCE) is the 4th amongst the 12 Angas of the Jaina canon. The sutra is believed to have been composed by Gandhara Sudharmaswami. This ancient manuscript is the holy book of the Svetambara sect. This tex ...
'' and ''
Sthananga Sutra
Sthananga Sutra (Sanskrit: Sthānāṅgasūtra Prakrit: Ṭhāṇaṃgasutta) (c. 3rd-4th century CE) forms part of the first eleven Angas of the Jaina Canon which have survived despite the bad effects of this Hundavasarpini kala as per the Ś ...
''.
The text progresses to the main story as follows:
* Layer 1: The Jain monk Suhamma (
Sudharman
Sudharmaswami ( sa, Sudharmāsvāmī or Sudharman; 607 BC – 507 BC) was the fifth ganadhara of Mahavira. All the current Jain acharyas and monks follow his rule.
Life
Sudharmaswami was the spiritual successor of Indrabhuti Gautama in religi ...
) talks to King Konia (
Kunika
Kunika Sadanand Lal is an Indian TV actor, advocate, producer and social activist. She is known for her various characters in many Indian films as a villain and in comic roles.
Also a singer, she has released three pop albums titled ''Lakhon Me ...
)
* Layer 2: Suhamma narrates a conversation between Mahavira and Konia's father King Senia (
Shrenika
Bimbisāra (in Buddhist tradition) or Shrenika () and Seniya () in the Jain histories (c. 558 – c. 491 BCE or during the late 5th century BCE) was a King of Magadha (V. K. Agnihotri (ed.), ''Indian History''. Allied Publishers, New Delhi 2 ...
) of Raya-giha (
Raja-griha). The naming of Mahavira as a narrator is a way of legitimizing the story as true. The naming of a king (instead of a Jain disciple) as the listener suggests that the text was aimed at an urban audience rather than monks.
* Layer 3: Mahavira tells Senia about the story of king Vasudeva's grandsons
* Layer 4: Vasudeva tells his grandsons about his adventures.
Layer 4 contains the main story of Vasudeva's adventures, which is interspersed with secondary stories that talk about the Jain faith and its
63 illustrous persons. The narrative layers containing these secondary stories go still deeper. For example, in one of the narrative layers, Vasudeva refuses to marry the grand-daughter of an old woman because of her low social status:
* Layer 5: The old woman narrates the origins of her family, including the life of the ''
Jina'' Usabha
* Layer 6: Usabha's donor Sijjamsa (Shreymsa) narrates their previous birth as twins in the
Uttarakurus
Uttarakuru ( sa, उत्तर कुरु; ) is the name of a dvipa ("continent") in ancient Hindu and Buddhist mythology as well as Jain cosmology. The Uttarakuru country or Uttara Kuru Kingdom and its people are sometimes described as belong ...
* Layer 7: The female twin narrates their previous births as the god Laliyamga and his wife Sayam-pabha
* Layer 8: Laliyamga narrates his former birth as King Mahabala
* Layer 9: Mahabala's friend Sayambuddha tells him a series of moral stories
The narrative then goes back to the main story as follows:
* Layer 8: Mahabala renounces the world, practices extreme austerity, and dies
* Layer 7: Laliyamga and Sayam-pabha die and are reborn as prince Vairajamgha and princess Sirimai
* Layer 8: Sirimai remembers her previous birth as Sayam-pabha and her existence as Niāmiyā (Nirnāmikā, "a girl with no name")
* Layer 7: Vairajamgha and Sirimai marry and live happily before being poisoned by their son
* Layer 6: The female twin remembers their previous births as Vairajamgha and Sirimai. The twins go through a series of rebirths as:
** Gods in Sohamma-heaven
** Kesava, a physician, and his friend Abhayaghosa
** Gods in Accua-heaven
** Prince Vairanabha and his friend Sujasa
** Gods in Savvattha-siddha-heaven
* Layer 5: Sijjamsa recalls that after their birth as gods, they were born as Usabha and Sijjamsa. Usabha preaches the ''
dharma
Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...
''.
The narrative then goes back to Vasudeva's story in Layer 4, which contains several such multi-layer sub-stories.
Unlike other texts, such as the ''
Mahabharata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...
'', ''Vasudeva-hindi'' does not remind the reader of the main frame story or any sub-frame story at any point. According to scholar Anna Aurelia Esposito, ''Vasudeva-hindi'' deliberately confuses the readers with such complex layers to cause them to "experience the sensation to be completely lost – lost not only in this thicket of stories, but also in the complex and incomprehensible nature of the world."
References
Further reading
*
External links
Vasudeva-hinditext in Devanagari script
Dharmasenagani Mahattara's Vasudevahimdi Madhyama Khanda Part 1
{{Brihatkatha
Jain literature
5th-century books
Frame stories