Religious Quest of India

SR No.: 011031
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: J N Farquhar, Griswold
Publisher: J N Farquhar Griswold
Total Pages: 365
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 78

52
MAHAVIRA'S PREDECESSORS
ascetics to join his community or sangha, who eventually all attained mokşa with him. His emblem is the horse.
1. Abhi
The fourth Tirthankara owes his name to the fact that
iandana the god Indra used to come down and worship (abhinanda) him in Vanita, where his parents, Samvara and Siddartha Rāņi, ruled. He attained mokşa accompanied by a thousand monks, as indeed did all the first eleven Tirthankara except Supärśvanatha. Abhinandana has the ape for his sign; he was born ten lakhs of crores of sagara of time after his predecessor. His height was three hundred and fifty bow-shots.
5. Suma
The legend about the fifth Tirthankara, Sumatinātha, tinätha. is more interesting; he was born in Kankanapura, where his father, a Rajput named Megharatha, was king; his mother's name was Sumangalā. The child was called Sumatinatha, because even before his birth his mother's intellect (sumati) was so sharpened. To prove the queen's ability, a story is told resembling that of the judgement of Solomon. An old Brahman died, leaving two wives; both women claimed the only son as theirs, and the dispute was taken to the queen to settle, who decreed, as Solomon did (and with similar results), that the living child should be cut in two. This Tirthankara's sign is sometimes given as a red goose, but others say it is a red partridge. He was born nine lakhs of crores of sägara after Abhinandana, and his height was three hundred bow-shots.
Susima, the mother of the sixth Tirthankara, longed before his birth to sleep on a bed of red lotuses (padma), with the result that her son was always the colour of a red lotus, which flower he took for his emblem. His father, Dhara, was the Rajput king of Kausāmbi. Padmaprabhu was born ninety thousand crores of sagara of time after his predecessor; his height was two hundred and fifty bow-shots.
7. Supăr. The father of the next Tirthankara was the Rajput king śvanatha, of Benares; but his wife suffered from leprosy in both her sides. This dreadful disease was cured before the
6. Padmaprabhu.