Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 2

SR No.: 001002
Original Sutra Author: Hemchandracharya
Author: Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra
Publication Year: 1937
Total Pages: 438
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Mythology, & Story
File Size: 9 MB

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CHAPTER THREE
knee-deep. After they had made a jeweled dais in the center, the Bhavanapatis made around it a low wall 184 of silver with a coping of gold. The Jyotişkas made a second wall of gold with a coping of jewels like their own brilliance condensed. The Vaimānika-gods made the upper wall of jewels with a coping of rubies.
In each wall there were four beautiful doors, just as in the wall around Jambūdvipa, abodes for the relaxation of the mind. At every door there were ornamental arches with leaves of emerald resembling beautiful rows of parrots flying in the sky. On the two sides of the arches were set pitchers with lotuses in their mouths like cakravākas on the two sides of a river at evening. At every door there was a tank full of golden lotuses like an auspicious pitcher 105 filled with clear, sweet water. At each door golden incense-jars were placed by the gods, increasing the size of the emerald arches, as it were, by the smoke from the incense. 106 Inside the middle wall in the northeast direction the gods made a dais for the Master's rest. In the ground inside the third wall the Vyantaras set a caitya-tree, one gavyūti and fourteen hundred bows high, 187 Then the Vyantara-gods made a lion-throne, a dais, 198 two chauris, and three shining umbrellas. In this manner
194 361. This is the outer wall. One would expect it to be made last. Cf. I, pp. 190 ff.
195 365. Probably referring to the pitcher of the 8 auspicious things. See I, n. 153.
196 366. For the comparison of smoke with an emerald, cf. I, n. 213
197 368. Gavyūti can mean either I kos or 2 kos. Hem. himself, Abhi. 3. 551, gives 2000 bows as equal to I gavyūta (oti) or I kos. This is the usual Jain mensuration. But it is also used as equivalent to 2 kos. Hem. so uses it in Abhi. 1. 60. According to the Samavasarañastavana, IA 40, p. 130, the caitya-tree should be 12 times the height of the Arhat. Ajita was 450 bows tall, so 5400 bows was the correct height for the caitya-tree.
198 369. I.e., the lion-throne was on the dais, and the dais itself was on a platform not mentioned here. Cf. I, pp. 190 ff.