Topic summary
Salakapurusa
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Śalākāpuruṣa.
Śvētāmbara texts
- Kalpasutra – Devoted mainly to stories of Rishabhanatha, Neminatha, Parshvanatha and Mahavira. It names other tirthankaras and also mentions the categories of Chakravartins, Baldeva and Vasudeva without giving individual names.
- Samavayanga Sutra – This text gives description of sixty-three and fifty-four salakapurusas in different places.
- Paumacarya' by Vimalsuri (2nd century) – This is the Jain version of Ramayana. The story of Rama the eighth Baladeva is narrated within the context of 63 salakapurusas. The later texts were influenced by Paumacarya.
- Cauppanamahapurisacariya by Silanka (9th century) – This narrates the deeds of fifty-four great heroes.
- Trisastisalakapurusacaritra by Hemacandra (11th century) – The deeds of 63 illustrious persons, and one of the most popular text of Jain universal history.
- Kahavali by Bhadresvara (13th century) — This text raised the number of salakapurusa to 72 by adding 9 Naradas.