The Jain Monk and his Saka saviours 

Today, politicians only remember the Mughal kings as foreigners. They remain strategically ignorant of other foreigners, like the Scythians who helped a Jain muni overpower a cruel Indian king

About 2,000 years ago, incidents took place involving the Jain community that inspired an epic ballad that was put down in writing a thousand years later in Prakrit and local languages. This was the Kalak Acharya Katha that became the standard appendix of the main Jain text, the Kalpasutra, that described Jain cosmogony.

Then, five centuries ago, illustrated Jain manuscripts appeared telling this story. The manuscripts were dedicated by Jain merchants and bankers to their patrons, the Muslim Sultans of the newly emerging kingdoms of Ahmedabad, Jaunpur and Malwa. These peripheral kingdoms arose following the invasion by Timur 600 years ago, which had weakened the Delhi Sultanate. With limited access to Central Asian talent, these Sultans were forced to employ local talent in their courts, especially Jain bankers with a sound knowledge of accounting and finance.

Kalak Acharya Katha tells the story of a great Jain muni of the Shwetambar school called Kalak. His sister and he joined the Jain monastic order at an early age. He was extremely knowledgeable and she was extremely beautiful. Even though she was a nun, she was abducted by the king of Ujjaini.

Kalak went to the king and begged him to release her, but the king refused. Frustrated because no local king would help him, Kalak then travelled across the Sindhu river to its western banks, and took the help of Saka (Scythian) warriors. The Scythians agreed to help him because he had displayed magical powers: the ability to turn their bricks into gold. They attacked Ujjaini, but the king of Ujjaini had a trick up his sleeve. He had a magical donkey. When it brayed, the terrible sound could kill a hundred soldiers at a time. Divining the presence of this lethal donkey, the Jain muni instructed the Scythian warriors to shoot arrows straight into the mouth of the braying beast. That way they were able to stop the donkey from braying without killing it. Thus, with the help of the Scythians, Kalak was able to defeat the king of Ujjaini and rescue his sister.

This story is significant, as the Sakas are generally treated as foreigners in Hindu texts, along with Yavanas (Greeks), Pahalavas (Parthians) and Kushanas (Central Asian Chinese), although many of them patronised Buddhism, and a few even Jainism and Hinduism. The story is remarkably similar to the Ramayana, where Ram takes the help of the monkeys to liberate his wife from the king of Lanka. But what is interesting is that while the king of Lanka is an outsider, here the enemy is an Indian king, probably well-versed in tantra, and the antagonist is a Jain Muni whose support comes from a foreign land, the Shveta-dvipa or white continent in the west, a term used in many scriptures for Central Asia, the home of light-skinned Turks.

There are other stories of Kalak Acharya besides the Scythian attack. The muni’s nephews, Balmitra and Bhanumitra from Bharuch, eventually replace the Ujjaini king and venerate Kalak. But the Brahmins of Bharuch resent the popularity of the Jain monk, who is gently encouraged to leave the city. Kalak finds refuge in Pratishthana, whose king Shalivahan gives him refuge, and accommodates Jain festivals alongside Hindu festivals.

The rivalry between Vikramaditya of Ujjaini and Shalivahana of Pratishthana is a key theme in folklore. There are stories that link the birth of Vikramaditya to a celestial donkey. Is that an allusion to the magical donkey of the evil Ujjaini king? It is difficult to derive facts from the world of folklore. In fact, dating the two legendary kings has proven next to impossible. Some link Vikramaditya and Kalak with pre-Gupta invasions of Sakas and Kushans, while others date them with post-Gupta invasions of Hunas. The Sanskrit manuscripts that tell their story are dated to the 8th century, a little before the Kalak Acharya Katha was put down in writing, probably in Gujarat. Any speculation must be done with caution.