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CHAPTER III
ANANDAPURUŞAPUŅDARIKABALICARITRA
Now the lives of the sixth Bala and the sixth Sārngin and of the Prativişņu Bali in the congregation of Aranātha are narrated.
Previous births of the three (3-9) In the city Vijayapura Sudarśana was king, fair as the moon, giving joy to the world. After hearing Jain doctrine from Muni Damadhara, his mind being disgusted with existence, he became a mendicant, practiced penance, and became a god in Sahasrära. :: Also here in Bharataksetra in the city Potana, Priyamitra was king, who resembled the rising of the sun for lotuses in the form of friends. Suketua kidnaped his wife and he, disgusted with existence from that humiliation, became a mendicant at Muni Vasubhūti's side. Afflicted with grief at his wife's kidnaping, he practiced severe penance and made a nidāna 28 for killing his wife's kidnaper. He fasted and died without confessing the nidāna and was born a powerful god in the heaven Māhendra.
Birth of Bali (9-11) Now in the city Ariñjaya on Mt. Vaitādhya there was a well-known Vidyādhara-king, Meghanāda, to whom power over the two rows (of cities) had been given by Cakrin Subhūma. He was the father of Padmaśrī, the wife of the same cakrabhrt. Suketu's soul, after it had wandered through existence was born as the Prativişņu Bali in Meghanāda's family in this same city. He, with a life-term of fifty thousand years, black, twenty-six bows tall, became the ruler of three parts (of Bharata).
22 5. Pre-birth of Bali. 28 7. See II, n. 29.
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