________________ farasta ] . . fourth and last Tirthankara was a historical personage and a contemporary of Shakya Muni, the Buddha. He was born in the year 599 B. C., or towards the end of the Dusama Susama period, the fourth Ara, as the Jainas reckon time, on the thirteenth day of the bright half of Chaitra. He is said to have perfected his vow Kalpa after Kalpa. Many a hundred incarnations preceded that final incarnation in which the highest knowledge and intuition, called Kevala-Jnana, was attained. Step by step he climbed up the long ladder of existence; life after life of self-abnegation and devotion led him from earthly manhood to divine humanity, from divine humanity to the position of a Jina or a Tirthankara. Immeasurable ages of innumerable lives lay behind him ere he was born in the royal palace at Kundapura or Kundagaraina-a Kshatriya suburb of Vaishali, the capital of Videha or Tirhutborn for his last birth upon this planet, born to reach the perfet illumination, born to become a mighty teacher and instructor of myriads and myriads of the human race. The Jainas, both Shvetambaras and Digambaras, state that he was the son of King Siddhartha of the celebrated race of Ikshvaku and of the Kashyapa Gotra, and that bis mother Trishala was sister to King Chetaka of Vaishali, and was also related to King Bimbisara of Magadha then the most powerful state in India. The name given by
