जै · The Jain Encyclopedia
72 to Bharata · 64 to women · 18 scripts · arithmetic

The seventy-two arts

बहत्तर कला

Seventy-two arts taught to Bharata, sixty-four to women, eighteen scripts to Brāhmī with the right hand and arithmetic to Sundarī with the left — the learning of a world that had never needed any.

Beyond the crafts, Hemacandra has Ṛṣabha teach Bharata all the seventy-two arts, and names sixty-four arts of women. Johnson notes that the lists vary from text to text — the oldest are in the Samavāyāṅga and the Antakṛddaśā — and this atlas prints the counts and not a list.

Writing and number he gave to his daughters: the eighteen scripts to Brāhmī with his right hand, arithmetic to Sundarī with his left. The Brāhmī script of the Aśokan inscriptions carries her name, and the canon that would be written down at Valabhī a thousand years after Mahāvīra was written in a descendant of it.

Madyāṅgagives drinkno craft in its placeBhṛṅgagives vesselsTuryāṅgagives musicno craft in its placeDīpaśikhāgives lightno craft in its placeJyotiṣkagives lightno craft in its placeCitrāṅgagives wreathsno craft in its placeCitrarasagives foodMaṇyaṅgagives ornamentsno craft in its placeGehākāragives housesAnagnagives clothesthe ten kinds of wishing-tree, in Hemacandra's orderPotters× 20the first — a vessel of clayCarpenters× 20Painters× 20Weavers× 20Barbers× 20answers no treefields and firein the food-tree's placefive crafts of twenty parts each — one hundreda dashed line: a gift, and the craft recorded in its placeVimalavāhanahāCakṣuṣmatYaśasvinmāAbhicandraPrasenajitdhikMarudevaNābhiṚṣabhathe third age — the trees' powers go “very, very slowly”not to scale: two koṭākoṭi sāgaropamathe seven kulakarashā · mā · dhik — the three laws, only wordsthe learning, counted72arts, to Bharata64arts of women18scripts, to Brāhmī — right handarithmetic, to Sundarī — left handTen trees, and what replaced themthe ten kalpavṛkṣa and what each gives — Hemacandra I.2, from the Jambūdvīpaprajñaptithe third age: the trees fail, seven kulakaras keep order with three wordswhat Ṛṣabha taught in their place — and the six gifts nothing replaced100crafts, to replace four gifts
Ten trees, and what replaced them — The seventy-two arts highlighted

Measurements and counts

To Bharata72 arts
Of women64 arts
To Brāhmī18 scripts — right hand
To Sundarīarithmetic — left hand
The listsvary; not printed

Connected

The Wishing-TreesThe hundred craftsBharata CakravartīṚṣabhanāthaThe Canon

Open in the interactive atlas →

समयं गोयम! मा पमायए

Do not be heedless, Gautama, for even a single samaya.

Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 10