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According to the Jain cosmology, the śalākāpuruṣa "illustrious or worthy persons", also known as the trīṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣa "63 illustrious persons" are 63 illustrious beings who appear during each half-time cycle.〔Jaini, Padmanabh (2000) p.377—378〕 The Jain universal or legendary history is a compilation of the deeds of these illustrious persons.〔Dundas, Paul; John Hinnels ed. (2002) p.12〕 A notable hagiography of these individuals is Hemachandra's ''Trīṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacaritra''. The śalākāpuruṣa comprise 24 Tirthankaras, twelve Chakravartin (universal monarchs, emperors of six continents), nine Baladevas (gentle heroes), nine Vāsudevas (warrior heroes) and nine Prativāsudevas (anti-heroes).〔 According to Jainism, time is without beginning and eternal. The ''Kālacakra'', the cosmic wheel of time, rotates ceaselessly. The wheel of time is divided into two half-rotations, ''Utsarpiṇī'' or ascending time cycle and ''Avasarpiṇī'', the descending time cycle, occurring continuously after each other. ''Utsarpiṇī'' is a period of progressive prosperity and happiness where the time spans and ages are at an increasing scale while the ''Avasarpiṇī'' is a period of increasing sorrow and immorality with decline in time spans of the epochs.〔Kothari, Dr. P. Ajay (2000) p. 90—91〕 During each such time cycle, these 63 illustrious persons appear and establish the religion and order in society. According to Jain cosmology, since time is eternal, infinite kalacakras have elapsed and will occur in future and hence infinite sets of these 63 illustrious persons have appeared, and will appear, to establish order and religion in their respective eras.〔Kapadia, H.R. (1941) p.65〕 ==Origin and Etymology== The word ''salakapurusa'' is often translated as illustrious persons or worthy persons or mighty persons. It is derived from the Sanskrit compound of words ''salaka'' and ''purusa''. "''Purusa''" means person, but "''salaka''" is of ambiguous etymology in this context. The primary meaning of the word salaka (Sanskrit: ''Śalākā'', Pali: ''salākā'', Prakrit: ''salāgā'', ''salāyā'') is "stick". In the Buddhist context it meant a ticket consisting of wooden sticks meant for voting or to distribute food; but in Jain context it was used to mean a stick and also a measurement and when combined with "purusa" to denote great heroes.〔Cort, John (1997) p. 1357〕 According to 11th century Jain author, monk Acharya Hemachandra, these persons are called ''salaka'' as they have been specially marked among men. This emphasised that the names of the salakapurusas were underlined or specially significant due to their deeds. John Cort also quotes another author, S. D. Parekh, who emphasises the root meaning of voting sticks and concludes that a salakapurusa is a great person, as his greatness has been accepted by general public.〔Cort, John (1997) p. 1358〕 The tradition of salakapurusas or Jain universal history started with the biographies of the Tirthankaras. Kalpasutra gives the names and brief biographies of only tirthankaras. It does not use the word ''salakapurusa''s or mention them by name, but does say that the categories of Arihants, Chakravartins, Balaramas and Vasudevas are always born in royal families, thus foreshadowing 54 of the 63 salakapurusas. Furthermore, Jaini traces the origin of list of Baladeva and Vasudeva to the ''Jinacharitra'' (lives of the ''Jina''s) by Bhadrabahu (3–4th century BCE).〔Jaini, Padmanabh (2000) p. 377〕 There was no agreement in the initial texts as to the number of salakapurusas, and prativasudevas were often left out of the list of Jain heroes. Much of the raw material of the universal history can be found in the Jain Agamas (earliest Svetambara canonical literature some of which dates to 4th century BCE). The following texts chronicle the deeds of the salakapurusas:〔John cort p.1356—57〕 *Kalpasutra – Devoted mainly to stories of Rishabha, Neminatha, Parsva and Mahavira. It names other tirthankaras and also mentions the categories of Chakravartins, Baldeva and Vasudeva without giving individual names. *Samavayanga Sutra – This text gives description of sixty-three and fifty-four salakapurusas in different places. *Satkhandagama (1st century) – This gives a description of Jain universal history in a rudimentary form. *Paumacarya by Vimalasuri (2nd century) – This is the Jain version of Ramayana. The story of Rama the eighth Baladeva is narrated within the context of 63 salakapurusas. The later texts were influenced by Paumacarya. *Tiloya Panatti by Yativṛṣabha (7th century) – This text gives descriptions of other Jain heroes i.e. 9 Naradas, 11 Rudras and 24 Kamadevas, but specifically states that there are only 63 salakapurusas. *Cauppanamahapurisacariya by Silanka (9th century) – This narrates the deeds of fifty-four great heroes. *Adipurana by Jinasena and Gunabhadra (10th century) – This text is also known as Trisastilaksanamahapurana (The great purana describing 63 great heroes). By this time the number of heroes had come to be fixed at 63. *Trisastisalakapurusacaritra by Hemacandra (11th century) – The deeds of 63 illustrious persons, and one of the most popular text of Jain universal history. *Kahavali by Bhadresvara (13th century) — This text raised the number of salakapurusa to 72 by adding 9 Naradas. All traditions of Jainism now agree to the figure of 63 salakapurusas. However, the number of persons is 60 as three persons (Shantinath, Kunthunath and Aranath) were Chakravartins who later on became Tirthankaras. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Salakapurusa」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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