Essay name: Vasudevahindi (cultural history)
Author:
A. P. Jamkhedkar
Affiliation: Savitribai Phule Pune University / Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute Pune
This essay is an English study of the Vasudevahindi reflecting cultural history and traditions of the life of people in ancient and medieval India during the 6th century. The Vasudevahimdi is a romantic and religious tale that revolves around the wanderings of Vasudeva (a former Jain monk) and religious teachings in the guise of love stories, a common theme of poetry in Jainism.
Chapter 5 - Religion and Philosophy
61 (of 153)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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515
This type of fast unto death was termed as
-1
2 bhattaparinna or bhattapariccaza Usabha also is said
•
to have died after a fast upto the fourteenth meal
(coddasa bhatta) 3. A monk awaiting such a death by lying
on a mattress was called samtharaga samana
Samlehana
f
was a similar but a more planned
io
death by mortification of which covered a period of
twelve years, one year or at least six months 5. The Vh(P)
refers to Dhammilla who practised a masiya samlehana
The practice of paovagamana also has been
•
referred to as practised by monks.
iks7. The commentators
explain this mode of death as 'standing motionless like
a tree' (padapopagamana) awaiting death 8.
Nidana :
Sometimes, however, Jaina as well as other monks
showed a desire before death to get a particular birth or
1. Vh(P), 118.
3. Ibid., 185.
P.
2. Ibid., 21, 117.
4. Ibid., 170. See Deo, S.B.
Op. cit., P. 321.
5. See Deo, Op. cit., 201 for details.
6. Vh(P), 76.
7. Ibid,, 261, 324, 333.
8. However Jacobi takes this explanation as wrong and
compares it with Brahmanical prayopagamana.
Op. cit. P. 201 and fn. 318.
See Deo,
