Kulakara

In Jainism, kulakara (also manu) refers to the wise men who teach people how to perform the laborious activities for survival. According to Jain Cosmology, when the third ara of the avasarpani (present descending half-cycle of cosmic age) was nearing its end, felicities due to ten type of Kalpavriksha (wish fulfiling trees) started declining. The number of the sages who thus appeared is said to be fourteen, the last of whom was Nabhirai, the father of the first tirthankara, Rishabhanatha.

Jainism acknowledge a set of first law-givers who flourished in the present Avasarpini age (in the third division called susama-duhsama, when beings were born as twins and when the Kalpavriksha (wishing trees) used to provide them with necessary food, light and other necessities of life). The age of Kulakara was a primitive one, when arts and sciences were not known, and crime and punishment were in infancy.

The first kulakara was Pratisruti. When the trees that shed strong light around them, in the state of the bhogabhumi disappeared and the sun and the moon became visible, the people, who saw them for the first time, were alarmed. It was Pratisruti who understood the cause of their appearance by his superior wisdom. He explained to them that the light of the trees had been too powerful thus far to enable the sun and the moon to be seen but now that that illumination had paled they became visible. The division of day and night dates from his time.

Sanmati was the second kulakara. In his time the light of the trees had faded into insignificance, and even the stars became visible in the sky.

Then came Kshemankara, after the lapse of a long long time. In his time animals began to be troublesome. Hitherto the feeding-trees had supplied men and animals with enough food; but now the conditions were changing, and every one had to look for himself. The distinction of domestic and wild animals dates from Kshemankara’s time.

Kshemandhara was the fourth manu who followed Kshemankara after a long interval of time. He is said to have devised weapons of wood and stone to drive away wild animals.

The next manu was Seemankara. In his time, quarrels arose over the kalpa trees (wish-fulfilling trees). He was called Seemankara, because he had fixed the seemas (boundaries) of proprietorship.

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