The rise of Jain aṣṭāṅga yoga
By Katerina Vassilopoulou Spitha*
For Jainism, ultimate goal of every true aspirant is to reach liberation (mokṣa), a state in which the soul can enjoy total release from the bonds of matter. The different nuances that received in Jain history this spiritual endeavor was expressed, apart from the teachings of the great “ford-makers”, the spiritual teachers called “Tīrthaṅkaras”, also in the soteriological practices presented by Jain Yoga. If we were to distinguish the central idea around which all those yogic practices were established -at least those following the tradition of Śvetāmbara Jainism-, this would be the concept of “activity”. For the Jainas, activity (mental, verbal and physical) was considered to be the principal cause of the influx (āsrava) of subtle matter into the soul, bringing the soul (jīva) and matter (ajīva) together and causing the former to vibrate (Qvarnström 2003, p. 130). As a result, all forms of activity translated in the form of karma posed an impediment to accomplishing liberation.
To counterbalance the detriments of karmic effect, the Jainas proposed a tripartite schema (ratnatraya) comprising three main practices: correct belief (darśana), knowledge (jñāna) and conduct (cāritra) that was developed around the doctrine of twofold teaching (dvidharma). The first, moral aspect of the teaching which dealt with proper conduct, was concerned with improving activity, whereas its second, cognitive aspect that aimed at the correct understanding of reality, was devoted to suppressing and finally annihilating activity. Primary aim, thus, of any Jain spiritual practitioner, be it a layman or a nun or monk, was to transition from a state of activity (yoga) to a state of non-activity (ayogatā) by breaking free from karmic bondage through meditation (dhyāna) and other techniques.
Hemachandra’s and Haribhadra’s aṣṭāṅga yoga
Yoga in early Jainism neither emphasized on bodily posture, like modern yoga, nor had the liberating effect that Indian classical yoga advocated[1]. For Śvetāmbara Jain authors like Umāsvāti and his Tattvārthasūtra, yoga used to signify the “connection” or “juncture” of the soul with matter, the body-mind apparatus and its passions, and as such had a negative meaning. The medieval period marked the time wherein a huge semantic shift of the term yoga took place, largely initiated by the medieval philosopher Haribhadra Yākinīputra[2] (around 8th century CE). By defining as the highest form of yoga the one without yoga (ayoga), Haribhadra envisioned yoga as an activity that connected the soul with liberation rather than with matter, thus giving the word the positive meaning that it formerly lacked (White 2009, p. 41). Along with this development, the rise of medieval Jain yoga, as systematized by Haribhadra and later on by Hemacandra, brought on some other significant innovations that stretched the boundaries of Jain thought more than ever before. As it will be discussed in greater detail below, these were not entirely novel additions but the outcome of a process in which certain similarities between Jain and other systems were framed in more concrete and coherent forms.
The yoga system, which constituted the central reference point in Haribhadra’s and Hemacandra’s works in the medieval period (8th to 12th century CE) was the Indian classical eightfold (aṣṭāṅga) yoga, as codified in the Yogasūtra of Patañjali. In reality, the theoretical foundation as well as the various aspects of the yoga described by Patañjali involving the practices of specific vows (yama–niyama), bodily posture (āsana), techniques for controlling respiration (prāṇāyāma), withdrawal of the senses (pratyāhāra), and meditative practices (dhāraṇa-dhyāna-samādhi) are not encountered in those medieval Jain texts for the first time. They appear scattered and with different names and definitions already in the scriptures of the canonical age (5th century BC to 5th century BCE) (Jain 2016, p. 16-18). In some texts, the likeness is quite evident, as in the case of the Uttarādhyayanasūtra where the various karmic dispositions (lēsyās) are denoted through color in a manner similar to Patañjali (YS 4.7) or in the Tattvārthasūtra and the later Acarāngasūtra whose structure of the five vows has very close affinities in terms of both etymology and content with Patañjali’s five yamas (Russell 2022, pp. 6-8).
Yet, it is in the Yogadṛṣtisamuccaya of Haribhadra and the Yogaśāstra of Hemacandra that the classical eight-limbed sādhanā becomes the organizing principle for the creation of the entire yoga vision. Although some names continue to be different, the soteriological structure of the yoga journey envisaged in both treatises derives from Patañjali’s Yogasūtra. In exposing his eightfold yoga system to the ones with errant or incomplete views who seek to find “Avañcaka” or “Authentic Yoga” (Chapple 1998, p.17), Haribhadra makes use of the terms mitrā (friendly), tārā (protector), balā (power), dīprā (shining), sthirā (firm), kāntā (pleasing), prabhā (radiant) and parā (supreme). The first limb “mitrā” correlates to Patañjali’s yamas and concerns the five principal Jain mahāvratas: nonviolence, truthfulness, not stealing, sexual restraint and nonpossession, the second limb called tārā that deals with the observances of positive qualities in daily life refers to the niyamas, balā to āsana, dīprā to prāṇāyāma, sthirā to pratyāhāra, kāntā to dhāraṇa, prabhā to dhyāna and finally, parā to samādhi. Hemacandra, on the other hand, dedicates the first three chapters of his yoga treatise on the jewel of correct conduct which he relates with the first two limbs of Patañjali’s yoga, the fourth chapter on the performance of the āsanas required for the practice of meditation, the fifth chapter on prāṇāyāma, the sixth chapter on pratyāhāra and dhāraṇa, whereas in the tenth and eleventh chapter he outlines the different types of the Jain concept of dhyāna, being of two forms, virtuous (dharmya) and pure (śukla).
Facets of a pluralistic model
Despite the similarities between the texts, the present investigation on the aṣṭāṅga yoga of Haribhadra and Hemacandra should be by no means restricted to a monologue on the correlations between classical and Jain yogic ideas. A closer look at Yogadṛṣtisamuccaya and Yogaśāstra shows that their eightfold scheme served largely as the basis around which their authors added elements borrowed from Buddhist and tantric traditions, a fact that illustrates the strong parallels that already existed between them[3]. By bringing those diverse elements in their writings, Haribhadra’s and Hemacandra’s main intention was, on the one hand, to address to a wider, non-Jain audience[4] and on the other, to honor rival religious perspectives, demonstrating firm compliance with the Jain doctrine of intellectual ahiṃsā (Dundas 2002, pp. 227-233).
In his pluralistic yoga model, Haribhadra gives to his eightfold yoga goddess-like names, following probably, as Chapple (1998, p.28) argues, a tantric Aṣṭa Mātṛkā system.[5] Furthermore, he correlates his system with two additional yoga systems, the one is Bhadanta Bhāskara, probably of Buddhist origin, and the other is Bandhu Bhagavaddatta, related to Vaisnava Hinduism (Chapple 1998, p.15). From a short glimpse at the eightfold arrangement of all three systems we can conclude a strong alignment especially between the last four limbs aiming to ensure access to the knowledge of the highest truth by means of complete abandonment of attachment. What Haribhadra calls in Yogadṛṣtisamuccaya as sthirā, kāntā, prabhā and parā, the author of Bhadanta Bhāskara seems to define as abhranti (unmuddied), ananyamud (not finding pleasure in anything other), arug (without pain) and sanga vivarjita (free from attachment). In Bandhu Bhagavaddatta, on the other hand, we find the terms suksmabodha (subtle awakening), mimamsa (reflection), prattipatti (perception of truth) and satmi-krta-pravrtti (enactment of absorption) (Chapple 1998, p.16). Convincing evidence of Haribhadra’s familiarity with Saivite and Vaisnavite forms of Hinduism as well as Buddhism provides verse 130 of Yogadṛṣtisamuccaya noting, “With these words Sadasiva, Parabrahma, Siddhatma, Tathata refers to it, though the meaning is one in all the various forms” (Chapple 1998, p. 15)[6].
In the Yogaśāstra of Hemacandra, many ideas stemming from Hinduism and Buddhism lie behind the concept of “non-mind”, as delineated in the twelfth chapter. This concerns a state devoid of bodily, mental and verbal activity, as Hemacandra explains, wherein the mind is fully immersed into the supreme reality of the Self (Qvarnström 2003, p.134). Apart from Patañjali’s citta-vṛtti-nirodha (YS 1.2), Hemacandra’s amanaska (non-mind) resonates also with terms like the Vedantic amanastā of Gauḍapādīyakārikā, the amanas of some Upaniṣads as well as the Buddhist viññanassa nirodhena of Dīrghanikāya (Qvarnström 2003, pp.136-142). The fifth chapter of Yogaśāstra provides important clues on Hemacandra’s knowledge of tantric practices. In this chapter which deals with breath control (prāṇāyāma) we find descriptions of different divinatory methods drawn both from Jain and tantric praxis which aim to measure, for example, a person’s longevity through the use of yantras, mantra, matrkas, ahganyasa, and shadow reading or to determine the time of death by means of muttering a spell to invoke a divinity or by installing a spell in the body to consecrate the body and its shadow (Qvarnström 2000, p.599). Another example of tantric influence in the Yogaśāstra refers to the forms of tantric virtuous meditation passed on to Hemacandra, most probably through the writings of the tenth-century CE philosopher Śubhacandra. One among the four forms that Hemacandra presented in his work is the meditation on sacred syllables. These letters constituted different spells, the majority of which were variations of the pancanamaskāra mantra, “the reverent salutation to the five supreme beings” (Qvarnström 2000, p.602). Different meditation techniques were based on the use of specific syllables of the mantra or acronyms composed of the letters of the names of the five elevated beings or the word arham, which denoted the first category of supreme beings (Qvarnström 2000, p.603).
Conclusion
Regardless its different expressions, main aspect of the pluralism featured in Haribhadra’s as well as Hemacandra’s aṣṭāṅga yoga was that of synthesis. All its various elements were compared, critically assessed and arranged according to the Jain tradition, retaining, in this way, distinct its original metaphysical basis. The supporting ground of this approach provided the Jain belief that systems such as Hinduism or Buddhism were incomplete, since they could not do full justice to the manifold nature of the world, as they contained partial versions of the truth (Dundas 2002, p.232). This is the source of the criticism exercised in these medieval texts, especially in the Yogadṛṣtisamuccaya where Haribhadra criticizes heavily the followers of tantric Kula yoga for their vanity and their inclination to pleasures. For Haribhadra’s as also for Hemacandra’s Jain yoga it was the path of purity, which entailed absolute freedom from mundane desires, the only true yogic means to liberation.
Endnotes
[1] According to the Indian system of Yoga Darśana, yoga was the path towards liberation, not an impediment to it.
[2] Not to be confused with Haribhadra Virahāṅka (ca. 6th-7th century CE), who composed Yogabindu and Ṣaḍdarśanasamuccaya (Lhoir 2024).
[3] With respect to their worldviews, Jainism, as well as Hinduism and Buddhism, advocated that all living beings undergo a circle of birth, life, death and rebirth (saṃsāra) due to a fundamental cognitive error according to which the physical body rather than the soul was our true nature (Long 2009, p.83). Although all systems agreed that the correction of that error and the dissolution of the suffering (dukkha), which, as a result, was of paramount importance, each of them proposed a different path.
[4] Qvarnström (2016, p.143) claims that the kind of pluralism found in Hemacandra and Haribhadra served the purposes of adapting Jainism to the larger pan-Indian intellectual debate.
[5] This concerns an eight-mother tradition, records of which are found, according to Chapple, in works which predate Haribhadra, like the Agni Purana and the Kularnava.
[6] As Chapple (1998, p.15) states, the term “Sadasiva” reflects Saivite traditions, while the terms “Parabrahma” and “Siddhatma” Vaisnavite traditions. Finally, “Tathata” refers to Buddhism.
Bibliography
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Dundas, Paul. The Jains (2nd ed.). Routledge, 2002.
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* Katerina Vassilopoulou-Spitha studied History and Archeology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. After completing her studies, she sought development prospects in the postgraduate program she attended, “Digital Humanities,” at the University College London (UCL).
Today she sees her development through the lens of her yoga practice as well as the study of the texts, principles and ideas she “dialogues” with as a philosophical system as well as a physical practice. Her pursuit is to continuously deepen her knowledge through new apprenticeships. She lives and works as an ashtanga vinyasa yoga teacher in Athens.
Articles by Katerina Vassilopoulou-Spitha in INDIKA:
The rise of Jain aṣṭāṅga yoga, INDIKA 2026
Yajña: Επισκοπώντας το νόημα της εσωτερικής θυσίας, INΔΙΚΑ 2024
ΜΙΑ ΑΡΙΣΤΟΤΕΛΙΚΗ ΘΕΩΡΗΣΗ ΤΟΥ SAMADHI, INΔΙΚΑ 2017
H ΕΠΙΚΟΥΡΕΙΑ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΙΑ ΣΥΝΟΜΙΛΕΙ ΜΕ ΤΗ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΓΙΟΓΚΑ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΤΑΝΤΖΑΛΙ, ΙΝΔΙΚΑ 2016
