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REMARKS ON THE TEXTS
of Tripura and her six friends,' still the very idea of “vidyas" in the sense of "tantric lores", can be traced back to the Jaina Sacred Writings themselves. In their role as personifications of such tantric lores, they are linked up with the ancient Jaina legend of the origin of the "Vidyadharas", as related in a number of texts.3 According to that legend, Nami and Vinami, two princes, had been absent when Rṣabhadeya, the first Cakravartin, and, subsequently the first Tirthankara of this avasarpiņī, gave away all his property to his relatives and friends, to become an ascetic. Thus deprived of their share, they followed the Lord, serving. him perseveringly, in the hope of material reward.. The Lord, however, had now nothing to bestow.. Dharaṇa, the ruler of the Nagakumāras, and a devotee of the Lord, felt a desire to fulfil their hope. The earth and everything on it having been given away already, Dharana gave them land outside the usual realm of mortals, on the slopes of Mt. Vaitāḍhya, that mythological mountain range which traverses Bharatakṣetra from east to west, being embraced by the Ganges and the Sindhu respectively. The land being 10 yojana above the ground, and inaccessible to ordinary man, Dharana also bestowed on the two princes 48,000 "vidyās", enabling them to walk through the air and on water and to perform other miraculous feats. Thus outfitted, they settled on Mt. Vaitaḍhya with their kith and kin, and founded each
(1) Vide Daksiņamurti, "Uddhārakota", ed. by Raghuvira, Introduction p. 9 f.
(2) Fide M. Bh. Jhaveri, loc. cit., p. 147 ff., and 271 ff.
IV,
(3) Representative are: Saùghadasa Gani, "Vasudevahindi", p. 163 f.; Jinadasa Gaņi Mahattara, "Avásyaka-Curņi", p. 161 f.; Haribhadra Sūri, "Avásyaka-Țika", p. 143 ff.; Hemacandra Sūri, "Triṣaṣṭi-falākāpuruṣacarita", III st. 124-233; Vinayavijaya, Kalpasūtra-țikā "Subodhikā”, I, 212 (p. 152); Cp. also M. Bh. Jhaveri, 1. c., p. 175 f. and 260 ff.
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