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REMARKS ON THE TEXTS
Śāsanadevi of the 19th Jina, she must naturally be senior to Padmavati, the Sasanadevi of the 23rd. (That, for the matter of that, she must also be senior to her husband by millions of years, is of no consequence, in view of the Jaina belief in the eternal youth of their deities.)
The above expressions leave no doubt about the fact that anyhow Vairotya is considered to be an "Agramahişi" of the Indra Dharana of the Naga-kumāras. The same has been stated with regard to her co-wife Padmavati.' Professor Kapadia, who has stressed this idea, has expressed his disappointment on not finding the name of either of these two queens in the list of the names of Dharanendra's "Agramahiṣis" given in the Sacred Books. Besides the Bhagavati (Vihāyapaṇṇatti), which he quotes (X,5, Sūtra 406), the Jñātādharmakathanga (Nāyādhammakahão) likewise (II,1) contains that list, which runs as under: (1) Alā or Ila, (2) Sakkā or Sukkā, (3) Sakrā or Sadārā, (4) Sodāmiņī, (5) Iṁdā, (6) Ghaṇavijjuya. To solve this difficulty, it might be assumed that either the names Vairotya and Padmavati have developed from original epithets into proper names, or that those six names are not genuine proper names, but rather appellative nouns, designating the rank or "office" of these six goddesses, the incumbents of which go on changing, just as is the case with the various "Indras" of the Jaina Pantheon: the word "Indra" being nothing but an office designation either.3
(1) Senapraśna II, Praśna 112, p. 31.
(2) Edition of Sobhana's Caturvimfatikā, 1. 1., p. 27S f.
Thus, the "Dharapendra" who presented Nami and Vinami with 48,000 Vidyas, during the life-time of the first Tirthankara, is of course assumed to be a different individual from the ñsana-deva of the 23rd Tirthankara, for the latter "Dharanendra""'s soul was still incarnated in a snake when Parivanatha was Prince of Kasi, and became incarnated as god only subsequently.
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