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CHAPTER ONE
purpose accomplished by means of bathing you, Lord of the World. The power of all of the gods has its purpose accomplished by celebrating the festival of your birthkalyāņa, god. Today Meru, adorned by you, like a palace by a statue, has become the most important mountain; today it has become a sacred place. Today eyes have become eyes; hands have become hands by seeing and touching you, Lord of the Earth. Today our inborn clairvoyance was fruitful since we made your birth-festival after knowing your birth, O Jina. Just as you were on my heart today at the time of your bath, may you be within my heart for a long time, Lord."
After praising the Lord of the World in these words, Purandara took him quickly, went to Hāstinapura and put him at Queen Sri's side.
Life as king and cakrin (49-68) His son's birth-festival was celebrated also by king Śūra; or rather, the world had a continual festival because a Tirthanåtha had arisen. Because the queen had seen a heap of jewels, called 'kunthu,' while he was in the womb, his father gave the Master the name Kunthu. Sucking nectar put in his thumb by Sakra, the Blessed One gradually grew up, thirty-five bows tall. At his father's command he married princesses at the proper time. It is not possible to destroy pleasure-karma otherwise.
When twenty-three thousand, seven hundred and fifty years had passed since his birth, the Lord took the kingdom at his father's command. When an equal number of years had passed with the Lord as ruler, the cakra-jewel appeared in his armory. The son of Sūra, the object of worship by the world, worshipped the cakra-jewel. For the noble always show courtesy even to servants. Following the cakra-jewel the Lord conquered in turn the lord of Māgadha and the lords of Varadaman and Prabhāsa. He himself conquered the goddess of the Sindhu
43. See I, n. 147.
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