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SECTION F
JAINA CHURCH
Part 1
Mahavira and Related Persons
528
MV's life account depicted in the earliest stratum of the canon as an austere tapasvi and the promulgator of Jaina faith went through a complete transformation in the kalpasutra, in which he is portrayed as the saviour of the three worlds. The accounts of MV, his family, relatives, close disciples, dissident and rivals make their sudden appearance in the canonical story texts including the Bhagavati and the texts dealing with church chronology such as the 3rd appendix to the Acara I, Nandi and Kalpa. All of them belong to the fourth through the fifth canonical stages when the Jaina church entered the stage of compiling its own history.
529
Many of these materials in the Bhagavati had thus been silently transmitted in the school for nearly one thousand years until they had the opportunity of official expression in the late canonical period. Such being the case, these materials reflect the then church authorities' intentions and motivations in handling these historical personages. It is thus impossible for us to evaluate them as conveying truthful facts that actually occurred in the days of M.V. And proving to what extent they are historical and valid is an independent problem, which is beyond our present attempt. We must here confine ourselves to our original objective of determining the chronological stages of the relevant materials at our disposal. Our discussion will proceed according to the order of the following topics: (1) Mahavira, (2) Mahavira and his relatives, (3) Mahavira and his disciples, and (4) Mahavira and his rivals.
(1) Mahavira
530
X V1.6.578 is a non-dialogue text pertaining to ten kinds of dreams seen by MV on the eve of his achieving mokşa, which also appears in the Sthana X.1022. The content of dreams and their interpretation are described as follows: (1) a devil-like palm tree- a sign of the destruction of mohaniya karma, (2) a white feathered cuchoo - a symbol of 'sukla dhyana, (3) varigated feathers- a sign of conversance with the 12 Angas, (4) double stringed jewels - preaching twofold dharmas, i.e., lay and ascetic, (5) a herd of white cows - four sanghas, (6) a big pond full of blooming lotus- proclamation of religion to the four classes of gods, (7) a great ocean- crossing samsara, (8) a huge sun - revelation of kevala jnana-dar/sana, (9) Mt. Manuşottara made of blue cat's eye gems - a symbol of MV's fame spreading over the three worlds, and (10) MV himself seated on the throne on top of Mt. Meru - preaching religion to the three worlds.
531
A rule that one attains moksa by way of 'sukla dhyana was formulated in the
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