was composed by Acharya Jinasena in 783 AD. It is divided into 66 cantos and contains 12,000 slokas. The book aims to narrate the life of Neminatha, the twenty-second Tirthankara in Jainism. According to the Jain sources, Krishna is the first cousin of Tirthankara Neminatha. Therefore, Krishna's adventures too occupy a significant portion of the book. Harivamsa Purana suggests that Draupadi was married to only Arjuna as opposed to Hindu traditional accounts which suggests that she was married to all five Pandavas.
Synopsis
In general, all Jaina Harivamśa narratives go far beyond what one might consider to be fitting for the Harivamśa, i.e. the story of Krishna and his relatives, or Mahabharata material. They consist of four larger parts: (1) Harivamśa, including the story of Krishna, his ancestors and progeny; (2) Nemicarita, the biography of the 22nd Tīrthankara, Krishna’s cousin; (3) Pāndavacarita, containing the central narrative of the Mahabharata; and (4) Vasudevahindi, the narrative of the wanderings of Krishna’s father Vasudeva, in reality being a Jaina version of the Brhatkathā in which the character of Prince Naravāhanadatta is replaced by Vasudeva.
True to the systematic requirements of a Jaina Purana, the first three chapters describe the narrative setting of Mahāvīra’s samavasarana, where Shrenika enquires about the story of the Hari dynasty upon seeing Jitashatru, a monk of the Hari lineage, attaining kevalajñāna. Indrabhūti Gautama, the head of Mahāvīra’s assembly, commences with an exposition of cosmology, chronology, and the rise of the Kulakaras (4–7). The last Kulakara fathers the first Jina, Rishabha, who continues the work of the Kulakaras, giving rise to the basic social and hierarchical structures, and installing professions and classes. He is also the founder of the ikshvākuvamśa, and further, upon his cousins, Nami and Vinami, he bestows vidyās, magical powers, and the land to establish their own dynasty, the vidyādharavamśa (8–10). This is followed by the stories of Bharata and Bāhubali, two sons of Rishabha, and founders of the Solar and the Lunar dynasty (11–12) respectively. In sarga 13 the Harivamśapurāna proper begins, with a sketch of history up to the tenth Jina, Śītalanātha, during whose time the Hari dynasty arises.