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alms enormous treasures for a full year; but in the life of the Buddha, we do not have any mention of an analogous event.
As the Buddha moved out of the city precincts (on way to courting monkhood), Måra came to him and said,
"On the seventh day from to-day, a Wheel of Paramontcy (cakra -ratna) will be born; so renounce not your home. "
In the Jaina tradition, too, the birth of a Wheel of Paramontcy is conceived in the case of a would be world - monarch(7).
The occasion of Mahavira's initiation was celebrated by the gods headed by the Indra and by men headed by Nandivardhana. They decorated him with ornainents and placed him on a palanquin, took out a procession, till they saw through the whole process of initiation. In the case of the Buddha during the night when the Buddha left his home, at the command of the Indra, gods came after the Buddha had finished his bath, and remaining invisible from the rest of the people who had assembled, they dressed and decorated him.
Placed side by side, it should appear that the process of initiation as described in the Agamas has been followed in (describing the initiation of the Buddha in) the Jātaka. In the Buddha's eventful march for initiation, the association of the gods is not difficult to add. As the Buddha rode on his horse-back, it is stated, 60,000 gods moved with him from all directions with torches in their hands, without disturbing the silent environment of the night.
In the Jaina tradition, the throne of the Indra is shaken on the occasion of the birth, initiation and other special events in the life of a Tirthankara; but in the Buddhist tradition, it becomes hot on such occasions.
At the time of his initiation, Mahāvira uprooted five handfuls of hairs from his head; the Buddha cut his long hairs with a sword. Mahā vira's hairs were received by the Indra on a saucer made from vajra -ratna and were immer -
