Life and Stories of Jaina Savior Parcvanatha

SR No.: 011028
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Maurice Bloomfield
Publisher: Maurice Bloomfield
Publication Year: 1919
Total Pages: 271
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, N000, & N040
File Size: 20 MB

Page 37

Introduction
23
bhanaka, which I do not remember to have seen in our Caritra, but which is mentioned in the first verse of the Praçasti, is closely associated with Pārçva in Prabandhacintāmaņi, pp. 311, 312, the Jina Pārsvanātha of Stambhanaka,' and 'Stambhanaka, a holy place of Pārçvanātha '; see also the same text, p. 275, and Weber, ibid., 992, 1039. The Praçasti in its first stanza mention in addition, a number of tirthas: at Mathurā, Çankhapura, Nāgahrada, Lāțahrada, and Svarṇagiri; they may be connected with the Pārçva legend in general, but do not occur in our Caritra. Presumably, as coming from a later time, Merutuñga, Prabandhacintāmaņi, p. 309, mentions an image of the Saint set up in the temple of Dvāravati, which remains unharmed after Dvāravati was burned and overwhelmed by the sea.16 The Caritra has no occasion to take account of this later legend, any more than of the late tradition that King Kumārapāla (circa 1125 A. D.) erected an image of the Saint in the name of his father in the Tribhuvanapāla temple in Vāgbhațapura; see Merutuñga, p. 219.47 Images or cāityas of the saint are frequently mentioned in Jain literature; see Pārsvanātha Caritra 6. 137, 166; Prabandhacintāmaņi, p. 34; Weber, Ind. Stud. xv. 290; Handschriftenverzeichnisse, pp. 1039, 1047, 1049, 1050, 1053, 1076. Stotras, such as Indra sings in honor of the newly born Saint in 5. 105 ff.; or such as Pārçva's father himself sings in honor of the Saint in 6. 247 ff., continue to be sung; see ibid., 471, 928, 938, 943, 992, 1012, 1033, 1039, 1001. Processions (yātrā) and mimic representations (nātyavidhi), such as our text mentions in 6. 134, 143, continue to be performed in honor of the Lord; see Weber, ibid., 274, 1054-56.
" See Jacobi, ZMDG. xlii. 493 ff. "Cf. Bühler, Ueber das Leben des Jaina Mönches Hemachandra, pp. 40, 41.