Article: Padmaprabha

Four types of existence
Image by Diwakar Prakashan / Padma Prakashan © Diwakar Prakashan / Padma Prakashan

The life of Padmaprabha-svāmin or Lord Padmaprabha is almost eventless. In the 9th-century Lives of the 54 JainGreat Men – Cauppaṇṇa-mahāpurisa-cariya – written in Prakrit by the Śvetāmbara monk Śīlānka, the chapter about the sixth Jinais amplified by a long description. The Jina’s general assembly – samavasaraṇa – after he has reached omniscience is described in great detail.

In the 12th-century Sanskrit text Tri-ṣaṣṭi-śalākā-puruṣa-caritra, written by Hemacandra, has become the standard Śvetāmbara version of the Jinas' lives. Here Padmaprabha's life story is enlarged through a long sermon he delivers after reaching omniscience, which deals with the four modes of existence – gati:

• hell-being
• animal
• human being
• god.

Among individual story works dealing with the sixth Jina, the most important is the Pauma-ppaha-sāmi-cariya – Life of Lord Padmaprabha – written in Prakrit in 1197 CE (1254 of the Vikrama era) by the Śvetāmbara monk Deva-sūri (Pagaria 1995). He belonged to a relatively minor monastic order, the Jālihara-gaccha. The life stages of the Jina are the same as in other Śvetāmbara works, but the narrative is inflated with embedded stories that feature independent characters showing the doctrine in practice or illustrating the Jina’s teachings.

Padmaprabha is mainly praised alongside other Jinas in hymns dedicated to the 24 Jinas. One instance is the devotional song dedicated to this Jina in the Gujarati set of hymns composed by Yaśo-vijaya in the 17th century. This example can be found among the manuscripts digitised on JAINpedia.

Padmaprabha image
Image by Ramesh Kumar © Jain Sites in Tamilnadu

Padmaprabha-svāmin or Lord Padmaprabha is not one of the most popular Jinas. Yet he is known through a number of stone sculptures (Shah 1987: 138), such as:

• 11th-to 12th-century images in temples in north India
• a standing image from Narwar in the Shivpuri Museum, Madhya Pradesh
• rock-cut images in caves 8 and 9 of Khandagiri, Orissa
• a wall sculpture in a rock-cut cave at Kuppalanatham in Madurai district, Tamil Nadu
• a figure flanked by yakṣa and yakṣī in the Bhaṇḍāra Basti at Shravana Belagola
• sculptures in the western Indian temples of Vimala Vasahi at Mount Abu and at Kumbharia in Gujarat.

Metal images showing Padmaprabha alone or with other Jinas are also available in temples and museums.

In these examples the Jina is identified either through an inscription or his emblem, or both.