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Tirthamkaras of the Future
45
two gods and renouncing of the world; upasargas; Omniscience, conduct as a monk, stated in the phraseology used for Mahāvira (Kalpasūtra; ubi alia); number of ganadharas; life-spans in the various stages of life.
Thus this account strikingly lacks any originality or individuality. On the contrary, great care is taken to emphasize the identity of what Mahāpadma's career will be with what Mahāvära's has been70 ;
mae..., tvām eva Mahapaume vi araha (S. I, 301, 18-12, etc.). mama nava ganā, igarasa ganaharā, evām eva Mahapaumassa di araho nava gana igārasa ganaharā bhavissanti (S I, 302, 8-9). aham tisam vāsāim agāra-vāsa-majjhe vasitta munde bhavitta.....,
evām eva Mahapaume vi arahā tisam vāsāim.... (S I, 302, 10-14); etc. The whole set of equivalences is summarized at the end of the legend :
jam-sila-samāyāro araha Titthamkaro Mahaviro ta-ssila-samīyāro hoi u arahā Mahāpaume (S I, 302, 16-17).71
In the Titthogāli this tendency goes still further. Pauma's life is closely inspired by the Avaśyaka-niryukti section dealing with Mahāvira, to the extent that (exceptionally) “Vira" is used instead of Pauma?2, or that Yaśodā is also the name of his wife78 ! This is equally shown through the numerous verse-correspondences between the two works?4 :
Titthogāli 1026 = bhâsya-verse 46; 1027, 1029 = 47; 1033abŁ61; 1040=63 1046-1048 - 69-71; 1049-50=76-77; 1052–79;1056=niryukti-verse 460; 1057= bhāsya-verse 81; 1058 -83; 1059=84; 1060 = 82; 1061 = 85; 1064-68= 86-90; 1073-85=92-105; 1087bcd=106bcd; 1088-1091 = 107-110; 1093£niryukti-verse 537; 1094ab=538ab; 1097-1098=539-540; 1099=592.
Thus, similarities are more important than the few minor differences : the transfer of the embryo is not mentioned in the case of F. T. 175; but he is said to have entrusted the kingdom to his son, the prince Nalinakumāra when leaving the secular world (gā. 1069 ff. ), this detail is unknown in Mahāvira's legend.
The Amamasvāmicarita, composed in sam. 1252=A. D. 1195, is a complete individual account about the twelfth F. T., who was formerly Kțşņa. His life. sketch is not different from Mahāpadma's as can be deduced from the analysis given in the Jaina Sahitya ka Bșhad Itihasa (Varanasi 1973, vol. VI. p. 127-128): Birth; childhood; marriage; coronation; dikşā; Omniscience; samavasaraņa; Teaching; ganadharas; Liberation.
To conclude this survey of the narrative data (1.2 and see 4.): two groups stand out of the 24 figures destined to be F. Ts. A few of them are really living figures, e. g. Revati, Sulasā, Ambada, all contemporary with Mahāvira. Some do not seem to have reached the level of an independent existence in texts other than
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