shrii and jyeshThaa in shramanic traditions

[Guest guest]

The pair of opposites, called tavvai "elder sister" (or, mukaTi,

kETTai, cETTai, etc.) and ceyyAL 'shrii' (or, tiru, puu-/alai-makaL

etc.) occurs in TirukkuRaL (eg., in kuRaL 167, 617, 936).

VaLLuvar, the author of kuRaL, is considered to be influenced

by Jainism [1].

 

Her name, kETTai, seems to come from kETu 'harm'.

cETTai may be tamiziased form of jyeSThA. Buddhist stories

talk about jyeSTha-shri sisters.

INDOLOGY/message/3070

Was it popular among Jains as well?

 

Ramayana stories became popular in the south via

Prakrit. For example, Indra turning into a cat

upon the sight of Ahalya's husband, Gotama is popular

in tamil, and the source seems to be a prakrit phrase

with double meaning, and this is not in Valmiki [2].

 

Inana's promiscuous nature in Mesopotamian poetry

compares with the description of Tiru in ancient Indian texts.

She is lolA-caJcalA, and after the victorious.

Interestingly, in many CT poems, the dAsi is compared

with the lotus flower, the flower of Laxmi. Inanna/Ishthar's

elder sister was Ereshkigal in Mesopotamian myths, and

Ereshkigal was the goddess of the underworld.

 

In Tamil Nadu, 100s of sculptures of jyeSThA from Pallava and Chola

shiva temples are found. Now abandoned,but worshipped between

500-1000 CE. Along with the crow banner, kETTai

is accompanied on her sides by a cow-headed son (mAntan2),and

daughter called svAhA. This reinforces that jyeSThA is the

pAtALa-lokam boss. Cows are donated to funeral priests (VaitaraNi

river legend, old tamil poems), and the fire may refer to cremation.

Richard Davis, in his paper in J. E. Cort, Open boundaries (SUNY)

discusses jaina rituals borrowed into saivaagamas in the south.

Have seen preprint of prof. John Cort's paper on bhakti in

jaina tradition (History of Religion jl.), and there are some

points taken from classical sangam texts.

 

Is the worship of jyeSThA in southern shiva temples and saivaagamas

a borrowal from Jainism? Near Madurai, in the TirupparaGkunRam hills,

there are many Jaina sculptures. The jyeSThA sculpture is worshipped

nowadays as Murukan (Skanda) (Ref. T. A. Gopinatha Rao,

Elements of Hindu iconography)!! Madurai has Jaina presence

in Tamil brahmi epigraphy from 2nd century BCE.

 

Tamil bhakti saints use jyeSThA imagery in their verses.

Jnaanasambandhar, in his polemical verses sung at Madurai

against Jains associates the term, cETTai with them.

This looks like a pun - "cETTai" a) "mischief" and b) jyeshta

 

So, are there references to lakshmi-jyestha pair in Jain sources?

Isn't Parshvanatha's yaksi, Padmaavathi a variant of shree?

(Parshvanatha, like Vishnu is represented under a serpent hood,

and green in color. Also, Parshvanath has srivatsam mark in

sculptures). Are there jyestha images in Karnataka temples?

 

Thanks,

N. Ganesan

 

[1] Valluvar and Jainism

http://www.services.cnrs.fr/wws/arc/ctamil/2002-04/msg00068.html

 

[2] Indra turning into cat (cl. tamil, Somadeva's kathasaritsagara)

http://www.services.cnrs.fr/wws/arc/ctamil/2002-04/msg00124.html

[Guest guest]

>Tamil bhakti saints use jyeSThA imagery in their verses.

>Jnaanasambandhar, in his polemical verses sung at Madurai

>against Jains associates the term, cETTai with them.

>This looks like a pun - "cETTai" a) "mischief" and b) jyeshta

 

For that particular poem with a translation:

CTamil/message/107