Shades of Enlightenment

Abstract

While scholarship has paid little attention to Śaiva/Śākta and Jain interactions in the medieval period, Śaivas seem to have exerted great influence on Jain ritual culture, bringing lasting changes to Jain worship practices. This article discusses the historical development of two aspects of Jain ritual that may have been influenced by Śākta understandings ­­– a tantric diagram called the Ṛṣimaṇḍala, and the different colours in which the twenty-four tīrthaṅkaras are portrayed. Today, members of the two main sects of Jainism, Digambaras and Śvetāmbaras, disagree on the colours of twotīrthaṅkaras, Malli and Supārśva. As this article shows, the origins of this dispute seem to be related to medieval Śākta influence on the Śvetāmbara positioning of Malli in the multi-coloured seed-syllable hrīṃ at the center of the Ṛṣimaṇḍala.