As Navratri passes by once again, I find myself pondering on the Devi.

It has been happening quite often. I find myself a bit flummoxed with the Devi.

And I am realising it is a more deeply rooted matter than mere pondering.

I can’t quite grasp it. And yet it is there.

As I wondered about it, I realised that most Devis are, well, Hindu. I mean they are from the religion we now call “Hindu” in India. And the fact is that Jain religion has been atrocious with their women icons atleast in the last 100s or more years.

Yes, I cannot say it any other way.

Out of the 24 Tirthankars, not a single one is a woman.

Wait, actually it is much worse. Because there is one tirthankar who is a woman – Mallinath.

Or WAS a woman.

Mallinath, Jain Tirthankar, Female but Disputed

There are many versions of her story,

but here’s the one I heard from my Jain Shwetambar relatives,

Mallinath tirthankar had done some bad stuff in previous births. So “he” took birth as a woman. (loser!)

But once he had spent whatever number of years as a woman, he probably got done with that karma.

And then he CHANGED into a man. Because women can NOT get enlightened, a common Jain belief. And then he got enlightened.

So well, Mallinath is a man, but he took birth as a woman.

What a Donkey’s tale!

What a smoked up tale these people are puffing!

Anyway.

So effectively the one (and only?) devi icon has been removed and replaced either with a gender change situation by the Shwetambars or with complete denial because apparently Digambers simply consider him a man and refuse any possibility of it being a HER.

It was very interesting that for this blog post when I searched on Mallinath, I found this blog which shows pictures of a lot of old Jain idols of a FEMALE MALLINATH.

I cannot tell you how I feel right now.

WOW.

Ok let’s move forward with the topic of this blog post.

So, tirthankars are covered. We are now left with……

the Yakshas or demi-gods. (All Yakshas aren’t exactly demi-gods but it is a decent translation I feel).

The Female Yakshas In Jainism, what is their nature exactly?

With each tirthankar there are guardian demi-gods and one of them is always a Mata or Devi. And there are also guardian demi-gods for the religion itself. There are no Gods in Jainism. Only Yakshas or demi-gods. And the tirthankars which are enlightened humans.

So in the Yakshas,

yes, we have some women. A lot of Matas who are also called Devis.

Padmavati ma is probably the more prominent one. She is the yaksha with Parshwanath.

Similarly, there are many such Maas. So they could be powerful Devi icons. But as far as I am aware, they are not. Simply NOT. I am not aware of the story of any of those Devis. Nor are they considered to be their Hindu namesakes. I have seen these matas on tigers and similar iconography as a Durga in Jain temples. Many armed, weapons and all that. But no story, no significance, no importance has been conveyed to me in anyway. Not via their scriptures or rituals or specific customs or anything whatsoever.

All the Durga and powerful devi stories I know are Hindu in nature.

I have no clue what these Jain Maas do. Or who they are / what their stories are.

There is a mantra and stavan or something associated with them. But beyond that, they could simply not exist. The temple would be that much less colourful without their sarees and embellishments. But beyond that I am clueless about them.

There are some relatives who have been known to do some Garba rituals or some other Mata related sadhana but it is all considered in the stricter circles as Hindu mix up.

And if we come down to it,

When the female birth – is like a sin – and they cannot get enlightened. Why would there be a powerful female icon in the religion?

I am deeply saddened by this current lot of Jains. It seems to me certain aspects have been culled from it altogether.

Osiya Mata – kuldevi of many Jains

I just thought of Osiya mata, she is considered our kul-devi. In fact large groups of Jains across Mumbai, Surat and other areas are called “Surat Dasa Oswal”, “Surat Visa Oswal” and other such Oswal groups. This “Oswal” is associated with our kuldevi – Osiya mata.

So here we have a somewhat important devi.

I read up about her online (=wikipedia 😉 ) and it has an interesting story,

” A stone inscription, at the Jain temple of Osian gives a different story about the name of Sachiya Mata.^[1] According to this story, a Jain monk, Acharya Shrimad Vijay Ratnaprabhasuriji Maharaj Sahib, visited Osian town to perform the ceremony known as Anjan Salakha, at the newly created temple of God Mahaveer, around 43 CE. The temple of Mahavir had been built by Uhad, who was a minister of King Upaldeo; at that time, Osian was known as Upkeshpur. A temple of Jagat Bhavani (Great Goddess) Chamunda Mata was in the town of Upkeshpur. To receive the grace of the goddess, sacrifices of male buffaloes used to be made in the temple, during the festival of Navratri.

When the Jain monk Vijay Ratnaprabhasuriji Maharaj learned about this practice, he felt deep sympathy for the animals sacrificed. Using his influence on the minister and king, he convinced them to ban this practice. The mother goddess Chamunda then became enraged and angry with the monk. He was tortured and vexed by the goddess. However, by virtue of his self-restraint and devotion to his cause against cruelty, the monk changed her heart. According to this story, Chamunda declared that she was convinced regarding the harmful nature of this practice, and therefore would not accept any offering which carries blood or is symbolic of blood. She offered blessings for the followers of the Jain religion, so that the cause of non-violence could perpetuate. The Jain monk gave a new name, Sachi Mata (Real Mother) to Chamunda. A temple in Katraj (Pune) is dedicated to Sachchiya Mata (Osiya Mata), close to the Swetamber Jain temple of Katraj. In her temple, Sachiya Mata-Ji is worshipped with lapsi (an Indian sweet dish), saffron, sandalwood, and incense.”

So basically she is a Hindu devi who herself converted to Jainism.

😀 This gets good.

Reading up more on Osia the town in Rajasthan, I understand that at that location a mingling of Hinduism and Jainism is happening.

And that I suspect is at the root of this matter.

The Devi icons in Jainism have all been diluted because the Jains wanted to disconnect from the Hindus. This makes sense because Jainism was once the majority religion and then it was pushed down by Hinduism. So definitely a lot of enmity and possible destruction happened there. And since there is still a Hindu majority, there cannot be any resurgence or reclaiming of deities which are now fully integrated into Hinduism etc..

And this was the case with the Kaal Bhairava mystery that I investigated earlier also. Jains have changed the Bhairava stories completely, and so on the outset you would feel that it is a COMPLETELY different and normal guardien yaksha Bhairava. Except that it isn’t. It is the same as the Hindu Kaal Bhairava. One assumes this is to dissociate from the Hindus.

There is another reason why this might have been done. And it was actually a Digambar lady who told me about it. But I won’t go into that here because it is a little sensitive in nature. Yes, a lot more sensitive than all my brutal comments I tend to put in my blogs.

In the case of the Devi, I believe a similar Hindu – Jain mingling is taking place and thus the Devi has been distanced / rubbed out in the mainstream religion.

The Wise Side of This

This is now going to become a much longer blog post than anticipated, but I want to write this side of things here itself. See there is actually a wiser side to this whole matter.

Because Hindu religion is the MAJORITY religion in the country. And for all its inclusivity, they actually do subsume everything under one umbrella of “Hinduism”. For example, a lot of people Hindus consider Buddha a nth avatar of Vishnu and very conveniently consider Buddhism a part of Hinduism.

But is Buddhism a part of Hinduism?

This has to be pondered on properly, because when you think of it there are a LOT of Hindu elements in Buddhism too – the Gods and Demi-gods are all there. They have been attributed different functions and qualities, but they are there. This is what brings a lot of tourist visitors from Buddhist countries to Hindu temples. A Thai Buddhist youth was so keen to visit the Mumbai Siddhivinayak temple because he loved Ganesha.

The Hindu – Jain conflict, is very similar. There is a lot of commonality but also a lot of differences.

With Jains the key thing I feel is that, they consider Jainism as the older religion out of which came what is considered Hinduism. And this makes a big difference in this conflict. Because Hindus quite conveniently (and arrogantly) assume their theory and understanding about things (that Rushabhnath, the 1st Jain tirthankar was a Vishnu avatar) is the right one. A lot of them don’t even bother to find out what Jains think. All the current stories are as per Hindu scriptures, while Jain scriptural knowledge is unavailable. In this climate – with Hindu religion as dominant and pushing its own song – where does it leave the Jain people who basically don’t agree significantly with the common stories floating around.

One way would be for them to assert their identities strongly. They should make their scriptural knowledge much more accessible and common. So at least the Jains themselves would propound that. Currently a lot of Jain folks don’t know much of all this I am writing. Plus, once this knowledge is accessible then the receptive other religion folks would also listen and ponder.

Another way would be to distance themselves from a lot of “very-Hindu” elements in their religion. This definitely includes Kaal Bhairava and the Devi forms. Even the other Yakshas – Manibhadra veer, Ksetrapal Devtas (snake demi-gods) and such actually are very Hindu. But the stories have been completely changed. And so they are now put forth as very domestic people.

So that seems to be the crux of this matter.

I will try to visit this hotbed – Osia town and Nakoda Bhairava. I want to see this Hindu – Jain mingling for myself. Also, the Gujaratis are said to have come down from the Rajasthan. And my particular group of Jains the Surat Jain Dasa & Visa Oswal group has come from this Osia region. So that should be interesting.

The Valid Reason to give Devi a Supportive Role

Ok, there is one understanding due to which the enlightened woman maybe placed secondary, or ‘supportive’ and not made as prominent as the male one.

This for me crops from the fact, that a female GURU – using the word in its strictest sense – is…. well, tricky. Note, I am only talking about her ability to be a guru to the masses. Her enlightenment would be total like that of a man.

A lot of Gurus have been asked about whether a woman can be a Guru and my understanding is that there are physiological and social problems.

Generally, sun is considered masculine while the moon is feminine. So I think in terms of going out there and showing the path to people – a man is probably better suited. While the woman can also be a Guru but with some limitations especially considering the society currently.

“There have been some very wonderful Masters who were women, but they are of a different kind. They cannot operate the way a man does. They have to find a certain kind of situation, a certain kind of support system in the society. Society never supported a woman as a Master.” – SadhguruJV

And so, what may have happened in Malli’s case is,

Mallinath would have been born as a woman (wow!)

And then she would have gotten enlightened as women do.

But then she realised that she had to establish Jainism again (that’s how it happens with each tirthankar. They have to re-establish the religion and then absorb the older one that is the remnant of the previous tirthankar’s work).

Then maybe she had the necessary qualities to do this job as a woman. But what I feel is more likely is that she realised that as a woman she cannot accomplish this due to social situations. So being a fully enlightened being, she changed her gender.

This story of Shikhandi narrated by Sadhguru is relevant here,

“Seeing her (Shikhandini’s) plight, Stunakarna, a yaksha in the forest, helped her. He said, “I will give you manhood,” and using his magical powers he made her into a man. He said, “This will see you through in social situations. In real terms, you are still a woman.” (full story)

So finally when she set out to establish the religion, she was a man.

This also explains the whole twist in Osia Mata’s story. First she was a fiery devi in a Hindu temple, “demanding” animal sacrifices, but then she became Jain. And then she became fully devoted to Mahavir Swami, because of her nature as a Devi simply.

Like how Parvati is devoted to Shiva. Despite being one of the greatest yogis in the world, she is like supportive to Shiva. And then Shiva had to make the Ardhanareeshwar statement to say that she is his equal and half. Something like that.

And in this sense, considering the Devi’s nature of being feminine and thus of a different kind. Jains may have wisely adopted a more devoted (a supportive but equally powerful) role for the feminine.

And then of course later it got corrupted to a “women can’t get enlightened” and all such bundle stuff.

Phew! That was a long write up for me. And read for you. 🙂

Let me know your views. Specifically, if you have any insight into Mallinath’s story or other Devi icons in Jainism.