Unknown Pilgrims

SR No.: 007014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 820
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 131

The Gods Named Him "Mahāvira", the Great Hero
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attained omniscience.14 Then, followed by numerous disciples, both men and women, he started his life as a tirthankara which lasted nearly seventy years. At the moment of his final Liberation he was one hundred years old and the greater part of the duḥşamā-suşamā period of the phase avasarpiņi had run its course. 15 In the Kalpa-sūtra he is called the Elect. 16
As for Puspacūlă "at the head of a community of thirty-eight thousand āryikās", in the absence of any noteworthy facts one scarcely knows anything about her other than her name. The names of other äryikās are mentioned in passing. One observes that they belonged to the North, many of them to Hastinapura (or Ņāgapura) or to the East, and that they all came from rich merchant families of the middle class, with the exception of Queen Āyavā.17 These names testify both to the fertile imagination of the commentators who created the legends concerning these āryikās and also to their concern to associate women disciples with Pārsvanātha. 18 There is another striking feature to be noticed: having reached the end of their life of asceticism, cach of these āryikās went to the domain of the gods before being re-born in the human state; none was libcratcd.
14 Ibid., 154-155.
15 Ibid., 156-159.
16 Purisadaniya, cf. Jacobi, SBE XXII, p.271, n.1 "who is to be chosen among men because of his preferable karman", which he translates as "the people's favorite", Lalvani KS by "the celebrated" and PPN, p.453 by "worthy is lie worshipped and fo!lowed". There exist numerous histories of Pārsvanātha: the Pårśvābhyudaya, of Jina Sena (IXth c.); several Parávanáthacaritras, among them that of Bhăvadeva Suri (XIIIth c.); cf. JSK III, p. 56; Winternitz, 1977, pp. 512-516.
17 Cf. PPN, p. 86.
18 At Vārāṇasi there is mention of Kanharāi and Ghaņā; at Hastinapura of Amjū, Aparãiyā, Kamalaprabhā, Namitā, Paumā, Puņņā, Bahuputrikā, Bahurūpā, Bhāriyā; at Rājagțha of Bhūtā - this to quote just a few names; cf. PPN, pp. 154; 240; 9 (3); 48 (11); 159; 311 (1); 418 (6); 466 (2); 503 (5); 504 (1); 527, 533; (1).