Echoes of Govardhana in Jain Literature: The Lifting of Koṭiśilā and Consecration as Ardhacakrin: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

The story of Kṛṣṇa’s lifting of Mt. Govardhana, widely celebrated in Hindu tradition,1 recounts one of a number of miraculous childhood feats performed by Kṛṣṇa whilst living among the cowherds of Vraja. Among other things, the lifting of the mountain served to demonstrate Kṛṣṇa’s divine supremacy over Indra, the Vedic ‘King of the Gods,’ and is immediately followed by Indra’s consecration of Kṛṣṇa as ‘Govinda.’ In Jain retellings of Kṛṣṇa’s biography, wherein Kṛṣṇa is a purely human figure, the Govardhana episode is either quickly glossed over or omitted altogether. Nonetheless, certain features of the Govardhana narrative were incorporated into the Jain tradition in an important, though somewhat disguised, manner: the recurring story of the lifting of a massive stone named koṭiśilā by Jain vāsudevas. This koṭiśilā episode, which I suggest is a Jain analogue of the Hindu Govardhana episode and which dates back to at least the 5th century in Jain literature, was most systematically represented in Hemacandra’s 12th century Śvetāmbara Sanskrit Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacarita (TŚPC) or Biographies of the Sixty-Three Illustrious Beings.
Here, I propose that Hemacandra was well aware of the connection between
the Govardhana and koṭiśilā episodes, that he used both Jain and Hindu sources
in constructing his own koṭiśilā stories, and that he intentionally depicted the
event as a mere political act with no religious significance.