Tradition

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Jainism Hymns gathers three of the atlas's Jain devotional hymns, addressed to two different tirthankaras and united by a doctrine that shapes what praising them can mean.

The Bhaktamara Stotra, forty eight verses in praise of Rishabhanatha, the first tirthankara, is the best known Jain hymn, recited by both Digambara and Svetambara communities though their recensions differ in length. Traditional story holds Manatunga composed it in chains, each verse breaking a lock, which is why individual verses are used as protective formulas with their own yantras. The Kalyanamandira Stotra, addressed to Parshvanatha, the twenty third tirthankara, and traditionally attributed to the Svetambara monk scholar Siddhasena Divakara, shares that hymn's verse form and its tradition of miraculous protective power, and the two are often studied and printed together as companion pieces. The Uvasaggaharam Stotra, a five verse Prakrit hymn also addressed to Parshvanatha and attributed to the monk Bhadrabahu, is one of the Navsmaran, the nine sacred hymns recited daily by Svetambara Murtipujaka followers, traditionally held to remove obstacles from a devotee's life.

Jain doctrine holds that a liberated tirthankara does not intervene in the world, so praising one is understood to work on the reciter rather than as petition, a framing that runs through all three hymns alike.