Typesetting
Early Modern India. Literatures and Images, Texts and Languages
03 May 2019
13. ‘Guṇa kahūṃ śrī guru’: Bhaṭṭāraka Gītas and the Early Modern Digambara Jaina Saṅgha
Abstract.
While the contemporary Digambara Jaina renouncer tradition is best epitomized by the naked and peripatetic, male muni, in the extended early modern period it was spearheaded by supposedly clothed and sedentary bhaṭṭārakas. In Western and Central India, the number of bhaṭṭāraka seats and pupillary lineages notably proliferated from the fifteenth century CE onwards. The current scholarly and popular perception of these bhaṭṭārakas is that of ‘clerics.’ Though credited with the preservation of the Digambara tradition during the putatively adverse period of Muslim rule, as renouncers they are often seen as lax and overly ritualistic. However, little-studied vernacular songs of praise for individual bhaṭṭārakas, like other textual and archaeological sources, instead speak of deep devotion to them as ideal renouncers, venerable saints, and virtuous teachers. While the pupillary circles of the bhaṭṭārakas are assumed to have counted only celibate brahmacārīs and lay paṇḍitas, these song compositions also attest munis, upādhyāyas, and ācāryas, and one text traces the career of a bhaṭṭāraka rising up through these successive ascetic ranks. All this speaks of the continuity of the Digambara tradition throughout Sultanate and Mughal times, gainsaying the prevalent historiography of this period as a distinct and deficient ‘Bhaṭṭāraka Era.’
Keywords. Digambara Jainism, Western India, Bhaṭṭāraka lineages, Songs of praise, Hagiography.
The bhaṭṭārakas of Western India
While the Digambara Jaina tradition is most distinctively embodied in the figure of the naked and peripatetic male1* muni,2 it has throughout its course allowed for various types of renouncers.3 Celibate male brahmacārīs and female brahmacāriṇīs either join roaming groups of fully initiated renouncers or live separately, and though many of them continue to pursue further initiation, some choose not to. The kṣullaka and ailaka ranks more decisively constitute successive, preparatory stages for full muni initiation. Yet another type of Digambara renouncer is the clothed bhaṭṭāraka, who is seated at a monastic institution (maṭha).4 For a period of over five centuries prior to the reappearance of naked munis in the twentieth century, lineages of bhaṭṭārakas formed the backbone of the Digambara tradition. In the early modern period, more than a dozen bhaṭṭāraka seats (gaddī) were located in Western India (today’s Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh, northern Madhya Pradesh).5 The majority was affiliated to the Mūlasaṅgha Balātkāragaṇa, the number of seats of which proliferated notably in the fifteenth century. Though the Mūlasaṅgha Senagaṇa never seems to have substantially extended its reach north of Maharashtra, a few Kāṣṭhāsaṅgha lineages were also operational in Western India. The bhaṭṭārakas’ influence is generally thought to have declined after the rise in the seventeenth century of the Digambara Terāpantha, which, next to its ritual reforms, opposed their authority.6 Most of the Western Indian bhaṭṭāraka lineages did, however, last well into the nineteenth or even twentieth century, and were discontinued only after opposition by lay reform movements of the late colonial period.
The early modern bhaṭṭārakas are best remembered for the consecration (pratiṣṭhā) of images (mūrti) and temples, and for the copying and conservation of manuscripts. Most Digambara temples of sufficient antiquity abound with images consecrated by bhaṭṭārakas throughout the centuries. Many bhaṭṭārakas were also prolific litterateurs themselves,7 and a few of the former maṭhas still house some of the most extensive Digambara manuscript collections of Western India.8 Digambara castes were often connected to specific bhaṭṭāraka lineages, and as a kind of caste gurus, the bhaṭṭārakas had important functions vis-à-vis the lay communities like conducting rituals, administering vows, leading pilgrimages, and mediating on their behalf with rulers.
Venerable bhaṭṭārakas
The scholarly, as well as popular, perception of the early modern bhaṭṭārakas now prevalent is that of ‘clerics’ or ‘administrator-clerics.’9 As ‘pontiffs,’ the bhaṭṭārakas are credited with the nominal preservation of the Digambara tradition during the supposedly entirely inauspicious period of Muslim rule. As renouncers, however, bhaṭṭārakas are seen as deficient, ascetically lax or ‘corrupt,’ excessively ritualistic, and overly involved with tantra and mantra. As such, they compare negatively to the naked muni who have once more increased in numbers in the twentieth and twenty-first century. The extended early modern period, then, stands out as a distinct ‘Bhaṭṭāraka Era,’ differing in almost every sense from both the pre-Muslim and the contemporary period. This historiographical framework rules out any notion of the bhaṭṭārakas as venerable ascetics.
Various little-studied textual and archaeological10 materials from Western India, however, speak of deep devotion and ritual veneration of the bhaṭṭārakas. These sources amply clarify that the perception and treatment of the early modern bhaṭṭārakas in their own times, as ideal renouncers, venerable saints, and worthy teachers, paralleled in almost every way that of the naked muni today.11 This chapter aims to redress prevalent perceptions of both the bhaṭṭārakas and the ‘Bhaṭṭāraka Era’ by drawing specifically from vernacular songs eulogizing individual bhaṭṭārakas.12 Apart from lucidly voicing the now faded, former venerability of the Western Indian bhaṭṭārakas, these compositions also form important source material on the constitution of early modern communities of Digambara renouncers. While it has thus far been assumed that the bhaṭṭāraka saṅghas only counted brahmacārīs and lay pandits, we also read here of munis, upādhyāyas, and ācāryas, other sources13 also attesting brahmacāriṇīs, āryikās, and the so far little-known rank of the maṇḍalācārya. One composition relates of a specific renouncer’s career as having risen to the bhaṭṭāraka paṭṭa (seat) along the successive ascetic ranks (pada) of muni, upādhyāya, and ācārya. The sheer usage of these ranks in the early modern period, as well as some elements of the songs of praise shortly touched upon below, indicate the continuity of the Digambara tradition across the so-called ‘Bhaṭṭāraka Era.’
Karai gāvai maṅgalacāro’:Singing the praises of the bhaṭṭārakas
Vernacular eulogies of bhaṭṭārakas (gīta, jakhaḍī, hamacī, lāvaṇī, and so on) sing the praises of the bhaṭṭārakas’ virtues (guṇa-gāna)14 in an often elated, devotional spirit. Such compositions are available from the fifteenth to the eigh-teenth century on bhaṭṭārakas of various lineages. Typically breathing an atmosphere of joy, jubilation, and veneration,15 the gītas emphatically articulate the regard and reverence in which their contemporaries held the Western Indian bhaṭṭārakas. Many passages, in fact, read as paradigmatic descriptions of the qualities of an ideal Digambara renouncer. Throughout, bhaṭṭārakas are addressed as munis (munivara, munirāja, munīndra, mahāmuni), or ācāryas,16 as ascetics (sadhu, nirgrantha), and as gurus. They are referred to as mahāvratadhāras, observing the five mahāvrata vows, as well as the fully-initiated renouncer’s three restraints (gupti) and five rules of conduct (samiti).17 Bhaṭṭārakas are also attributed with the twenty-eight mūlaguṇas of a muni and the ten forms of righteousness (daśalakṣanadharma)18 and eulogized as knowled-geable of all scriptures, skills, and arts.19 They are praised for their restraint (saṃyama), referred to as seeking liberation (mumukṣu),20 and being freed of vices like anger, delusion, passion, and greed.21 Examples and tropes of the glorification of bhaṭṭārakas from these compositions could be further multiplied, and leave little doubt as to how strongly they were perceived as ideal ascetics and incarnations of ascetic ideals.
While some songs consist solely of the recitation of the bhaṭṭārakas’ virtues, many also bind biographical data into their praise. Details like the renouncer’s caste, place of birth, parents’ names, physical beauty, and promising youth are similarly found in poetic genres extolling contemporary munis and ācāryas.22 References to bhaṭṭārakas’ earlier life as laymen and as renouncers also occur, as well as, most commonly, to their consecration on the bhaṭṭāraka seat (paṭṭābhiṣeka), peregrinations (vihāra), pratiṣṭhās and pilgrimages conducted, and honours received from rulers. Those gītas, of which chāpas or colophons reveal the names of their authors, were composed by pupils of bhaṭṭārakas, either pandits or brahma­cārīs, or by bhaṭṭārakas themselves, in praise of their predecessors.
I have collected a series of gītas on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century bhaṭṭārakas of the Balātkāragaṇa Nāgauraśākhā23 from guṭakās preserved at the Baṛā Ḍaṛāji Mandira, the former Bhaṭṭāraka Maṭha in Ajmer.24 Throughout his oeuvre, Kastūracanda Kāsalīvāla documents a large number of gītas from the bhaṭṭāraka lineages of Gujarat and the Vāgaḍa region. He edits a composition on Vijayakīrti, an early sixteenth-century bhaṭṭāraka of the Balātkāragaṇa Īḍaraśākhā, penned by his successor Śubhacandra,25 and discusses a composition by Brahmacārī Jayarāja on the late sixteenth-century Bhaṭṭāraka Guṇakīrti of the same lineage.26 Kāsalīvāla reports particularly large numbers of praise compositions on late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century bhaṭṭārakas of a sub-lineage of the Balātkāragaṇa Sūrataśākhā,27 editing seven compositions (see references below). Sufficient indication of the prevalence of these bhaṭṭāraka song-eulogies in at least this lineage and at this time, Kāsalīvāla28 maintains that there are dozens of them on Bhaṭṭāraka Abhayacandra, estimates about a dozen compositions on Bhaṭṭāraka Ratnakīrti by Kavivara Gaṇeśa,29 and lists30 again as many authored by Paṇḍita Śrīpāla on the successive bhaṭṭārakas Ratnakīrti, Kumudacandra, Abhayacandra, Śubhacandra, and Ratnacandra. Nyāyatīrtha31 edits and discusses two compositions in Ḍhūṇḍhāḍī, termed jakhaḍī in the manuscript colophons, on successive Balātkāragaṇa Dillī–Jayapuraśākhā bhaṭṭārakas from the first half of the eighteenth century (see below). I also found compositions related to sixteenth-century renouncers of this lineage in guṭakās found in its manuscript collection, the Āmera śāstrabhaṇḍāra.32
Joharāpurakara included song-like eulogies on bhaṭṭārakas from northern Maharashtra in his seminal work,33 and is the only source for such compositions on Senagaṇa bhaṭṭārakas. One of these, a composition on Bhaṭṭāraka Lakṣmīsena of the first half of the fifteenth century, is also the earliest known example.34
Kāsalīvāla35 understands yet another composition edited by him, a Vijayakīrtti Gīta penned by Brahmacārī Yaśodhara (references from the 1520s), as pertaining to the early sixteenth-century Balātkāragaṇa Īḍaraśākhā Bhaṭṭāraka Vijayakīrti mentioned above.36 Given the composition’s references to the Kāṣṭhāsaṅgha and to Vijayakīrti’s consecration by Viśvasena, however, the poem rather seems to eulogize the sixteenth-century Kāṣṭhāsaṅgha Nandītaṭagaccha Bhaṭṭāraka Vijayakīrti, who was indeed preceded by one Viśvasena. Joharāpurakara37 also edits a fragment of a composition on this latter Kāṣṭhāsaṅgha bhaṭṭāraka (see more below on the latter two texts).
In sum, there remains a large corpus of bhaṭṭāraka songs of praise, composed over several centuries and related to many of the lineages known to have been active in Western India.38 The sheer quantity of compositions, and of compositions by single writers or on single bhaṭṭārakas, shows they came to constitute a specific genre of devotional literature. From a number of indications, we can surmise they were not only commonly composed but also performed. Some manuscripts give the familiar indication of the raga in which the poem was meant to be sung at the onset of the text.39 Some compositions contain allusions to their being sung by lay women40 with the accompaniment of rhythm instruments,41 while others refer to the singing of songs to welcome visiting bhaṭṭārakas. One text, for example, describes the Balātkāragaṇa Bāraḍolīśākhā Bhaṭṭāraka Abhayacandra’s visit to Surat in VS 1706:
Āja āṇa[ṃ]da mana ati ghaṇo e, kāṃī varatayo jaya jaya kāra/
Abhayacandra muni āvayāë kāṃī sūrata nagara majhāra re//
Ghare ghare uchava ati ghaṇāe kāṃī mānanī maṅgala gāya re/
Aṅga pūjā ne avāraṇāë, kāī kuṅkuma chaḍhāde baḍāya re//
So highly elated, the mind, today, some call out ‘Jay jay,
Muni Abhayacandra entered the city of Surat!’
Cheerful celebration in every house, some ladies sing auspicious songs,
some perform aṅga pūjā, some offer kuṅkuma and praise. (Kāsalīvāla (1981), p. 77)
A few bhaṭṭāraka āratīs (lamp-offering) are also available,42 and some compositions, not explicitly named as such by their editors, too contain references to āratī.43 Today, Bīsapanthī laypeople perform āratī 44 of living renouncers (typically ācāryas) on special occasions, or in the case of some renouncers, every evening.45 The practice of performing bhaṭṭārakas’ āratī, then, might have been a specific incentive for the writing of some of the praise compositions, distinct from other songs’ function to welcome maṅgalācaraṇa. According to Kāsalīvāla, some of these compositions were also written to be performed at the time of the bhaṭṭārakas’ vihāra, or on the occasion of group pilgrimages led by them.46
Dūri desa syauṃ ābīyā jī saṅgha caturavidhi sāra’: The early modern Digambara saṅgha
Thus, while the compositions and manuscript colophons do not necessarily make such explicit distinctions, various genres or functions of bhaṭṭāraka eulogies can be identified. A considerable number of texts show sufficient consistency to be regarded as yet another, distinctive subgenre. I refer to these as paṭṭa-sthāpanā gītas. While these songs, much like the others, feature the eulogy of bhaṭṭārakas as ideal munis, their devotees’ elation at their conduct, virtues and skills, and biographical data of the bhaṭṭārakas praised, they revolve more specifically around their subjects’ consecration (dīkṣā) on the bhaṭṭāraka seat (paṭṭa-sthāpanā, paṭṭābhiṣeka). In their jubilation, these compositions typically situate the dīkṣā in place and time, describe in varying detail the rituals and celebrations that took place, and name the main people present at and involved with the event, renouncers as well as laity.
Below, I discuss compositions on the consecration of one sixteenth-century Īḍarasākhā bhaṭṭāraka and two eighteenth-century Dillī–Jayapuraśākhā bhaṭṭārakas. Mallidāsa’s composition on Prabhācandra of the latter lineage also reports on his dīkṣā in VS 1572, in Campāvatī (Cāṭasū, Chaksu).47 From the Ajmer guṭakās discussed above, the first gīta on Bhaṭṭāraka Sahasrakīrti revolves around his consecration in VS 1634. The compositions on consecutive Bāraḍolīśākhā bhaṭṭārakas edited by Kāsalīvāla (1981) referred to above are also representative examples of this genre. A composition by Sumatisāgara commemorates the anointment of Bhaṭṭāraka Ratnakīrti in Jālaṇapura, ‘in the Southern country’ (probably Jālanā, Maharashtra) in VS 1630.48 No less than three compositions remain on Bhaṭṭāraka Kumudacandra’s consecration in Bāraḍolī in VS 1656: two by ‘Kavivara’ (Brahmacārī?) Gaṇeśa,49 and one anonymous.50 Kumudacandra’s succession by Bhaṭṭāraka Abhayacandra in VS 1685, again in Bāraḍolī, is commemorated and celebrated by both Brahmacārī Meghasāgara and Paṇḍita Dāmodara.51 The proceedings of the lineage’s next paṭṭābhiṣeka, taking place in SV 1721 in Poravandara (Porbandar),52 are detailed by Paṇḍita Śrīpāla in his Śubhacandra hamacī.53 Mahatisāgara’s lāvaṇī (Marathi song), a miniature vita of his guru, the late eighteenth-century Balātkāragaṇa Kārañjāśākhā Devendrakīrti, touches upon similar elements as the Western Indian paṭṭa-sthāpanā gītas in its verses on Devendrakīrti’s consecration.54 In the sixteenth-century Kāṣṭhāsaṅgha Nandītaṭagaccha compositions referred to above we read respectively of Bhaṭṭāraka Viśvasena’s dīkṣā digaṃbara in Ḍūṅgarapura, being consecrated at the hands of his guru Viśālakīrti,55 and of Viśvasena, in turn, consecrating his own successor Vijayakīrti.56
The genre of the paṭṭa-sthāpanā gīta, like bhaṭṭāraka eulogies more generally, thus also seems to have been well established across the various lineages. It is possible that these formed a more purely textual, commemorative literary genre, less explicitly meant to be performed than other types of gītas. Apart from the historical details of place and time, some of these compositions include longish lists of names of the people attending and participating. Of particular interest to us are some of these texts’ references to the attendance of not just brahmacārīs, pandits, and lay sponsors, but also munis and ācāryas. The presence of munis and ācāryas in the early modern Digambara saṅgha is thus far poorly known. While also demonstrable from textual57 and epigraphic58 attestations compiled more laboriously, a few paṭṭa-sthāpanā gītas offer instant peeps into the breadth and variety of early modern Digambara asceticism under the Western Indian bhaṭṭārakas and the prevalence of munis and ācāryas in the period. A Ḍhūṇḍhāḍī jakhaḍī composed by Paṇḍita Akairāma and edited by Nyāyatīrtha lists the renouncers who came to the consecration of the Balātkāragaṇa Dillī–Jayapuraśākhā Bhaṭṭāraka Mahendrakīrti in Delhi in VS 1792, and venerated the freshly minted bhaṭṭāraka after the completion of his paṭṭābhiṣeka:
dūri desa syauṃ ābīyā jī saṅgha caturavidhi sāra/
guru pūjana baṃdana karai jī aṅgi uchāha apāra//5//
uchāha aṅgi apāra jina kai ācārija ara arijikā/
brahmacāra paṇḍita śrāvikā gurucaraṇa pūja viśeṣikā//
jahāṃ kṣetra kīrati haraṣa kīrati padama kīrati pāmiye/
muni acala kīrati sakala kīrati vimala kīrati bakhāṇiye//
ima rāja śrī ara kamala śrī ye arajikā doya āniye/
brahma ṭekacaṃda ju keśavadāsa kapūracandajī jāniye//6// (Nyāyatīrtha (1985a), p. 423)
From faraway lands, the whole fourfold saṅgha came.
They venerate and praise the guru, in their limbs a joy unsurpassed. (5)
A joy that cannot be contained, in the limbs of ācāryas, āryikās,
brahmacārīs, pandits and laywomen, performing pūjā of the guru’s feet.
Where Kṣetrakīrti,59 Harṣakīrti, and Padmakīrti arrived [?],
Muni Acalakīrti, Sakalakīrti and Vimalakīrti, so be it known.
So also Rājaśrī and Kamalaśrī, these two āryikās came.
Brahmacārī Tekacandajī, Keśavadāsa [and] Kapūracanda, know these too. (6)
A similar composition by one Nemacanda is available commemorating the paṭṭābhiṣeka of Mahendrakīrti’s predecessor, Devendrakīrti, who succeeded his guru Jagatkīrti in Ambāvatī (Amer) in VS 1770. It similarly gives an account of the renouncers present at the event:
caṃda kīrati jī jasa līyo saba bātāṃ paravīṇojī/
śrī jagatakīrati kai pāṭa thāpiyo deva indrakīrati sukhalīṇojī/ṭeka //
sukha līna ati hī viśāla kīrati jñāna kīrati subhācaṃdajī/
nemacaṃda nemānaṃdi meru kīrati brahma nāthū ṭekaca[ṃ]dajī/
lālacaṃda likhamīdāsa paṇḍita giridhara lakhamaṇa rasa līyo/
devaïndra kīrati pāṭi thāpitāṃ svāmī caṃdakīratijī jasa līyo//3//
Candrakīrti gained glory [as] well-versed in all matters,
delighted, he established Devendrakīrti on Śrī Jagatkīrti’s seat.60
Overjoyed [as well, were] Viśālakīrti, Jñānakīrti, Subhacandajī,
Nemacanda,61 Nemānandi [and] Merukīrti; Brahmacārī Nāthu, Ṭekacandajī,
Lālacanda [and] Lakṣmīdāsa; Paṇḍita62 Giridhara [and] Lakṣmaṇa were thrilled.
Placing Devendrakīrti on the seat, Swami Candrakīrti gained much glory. (Nyāyatīrtha (1985b), p. 36)
Here, the rank of the six renouncers from Viśālakīrti to Merukīrti is not indicated. However, judging from their names,63 and their being listed before attendees explicitly called brahmacārī, it seems likely they were munis (upādhyāyas, ācāryas).64 While other paṭṭa-sthāpanā gītas do not explicitly name the renouncers present, they do commonly refer to the meeting of the caturvidha saṅgha, the fourfold Jaina community consisting of male (sadhu) and female (sādhvī) renouncers, and male (śrāvaka) and female (śrāvikā) laypeople. Given the general prevalence of munis, as confirmed by other sources, the concept of the caturvidha saṅgha, as used in those cases too, potentially had actual referents, rather than merely being used as an idiomatic trope. Conversely, the usage of the term can also be read as confirming the former perception of these renouncers as genuine and undisputed venerable renouncers.
A paṭṭa-sthāpanā composition by Brahmacārī Jayarāja provides valuable insight into the career of Bhaṭṭāraka Guṇakīrti, who in VS 1632 was consecrated as the incumbent of the Īḍarasākhā, one of the two Balātkāragaṇa seats of the Vāgaḍa region.65 The narrative of this early modern renouncer’s life, first as a lay boy and then as a renouncer, reads remarkably similar to contemporary Jaina hagiographies. Studious, bright, and good-looking, the young Gaṇapati experienced detachment (vairāgya) early in life and took to the feet of Bhaṭṭāraka Sumatikīrti.66 Impressed by his merits, Sumatikīrti accepted Gaṇapati as his main pupil, giving him his new name, Guṇakīrti. The fledgling renouncer then joined the bhaṭṭāraka on his vihāra, probably initially as a brahmacārī. Cheered by a crowd, he took the five mahāvratas at a function in Ḍūṅgarapura, becoming a muni. Once he was well-versed in scriptures and logic, and had become a skilled and captivating orator, he received the upādhyāya pada and started teaching the Gommaṭasāra and other texts. Sometime later he was again promoted, becoming an ācārya, a leader of the saṅgha. Sumatikīrti then declared Guṇakīrti his successor, and a propitious date was determined for his consecration to the bhaṭṭāraka seat, which took place again in Ḍūṅgarapura.
Before ultimately becoming a bhaṭṭāraka, Guṇakīrti was initiated over time into the successive Digambara padas, much as would be customary for an ācārya today.67 This was, however, apparently not always an absolute requirement, as elsewhere we find accounts of brahmacārīs consecrated directly as ācārya or baṭṭāraka, skipping the muni (and upādhyāya) ranks.68 It must be noted, furthermore, that the conferment of these ranks probably does not necessarily entail that these were naked renouncers. If we presume that the Western Indian bhaṭṭārakas were generally clothed,69 this in fact seems rather improbable, given that even in its practical absence, throughout the early modern period nudity remained the highest Digambara ideal of renunciation, 70 and naked munis could thus hardly be subordinate to clothed bhaṭṭārakas. Yet, the very usage of the muni and ācārya padas, the venerability of bhaṭṭārakas and the specific forms of their veneration (pūjā, āratī, gīta), their dīkṣā rituals71 and adoption of the mahāvratas and other rules of conduct, all speak of a continuity of Digambara renunciation across—and crossing out—the ‘Bhaṭṭāraka Era.’ What I have not attended to here is more precisely situating the prevalence, and eventual disappearance, of early modern munis and ācāryas in time and place. Preliminary results show that the muni rank became almost entirely obsolete after the seventeenth century, while the ācārya pada disappeared only after the eighteenth.72 These are findings which differ starkly from the common assumption that the rise of the Sultanates, and hence the commencement of Muslim rule, abruptly and simultaneously caused the stage entry of the bhaṭṭārakas and the exit of the munis.
13. ‘Guṇa kahūṃ śrī guru’: Bhaṭṭāraka Gītas and the Early Modern Digambara Jaina Saṅgha
Tillo Detige
The bhaṭṭārakas of Western India
Venerable bhaṭṭārakas
Karai gāvai maṅgalacāro’:Singing the praises of the bhaṭṭārakas
Dūri desa syauṃ ābīyā jī saṅgha caturavidhi sāra’: The early modern Digambara saṅgha