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Tirthankaras of the Future
(v) The Dasabodhisattuppattikatha shows that persons said to become future Buddhas belong to two categories: historical characters who were alive in the Buddha's time, known to the Pali Canon, and others who are mere names on which stories have been hung.
A comparable distinction appears from the collation of the Jaina data (p. 16). Pasenadi, the king of Kosala contemporary with Gautama Buddha will be the Buddha Dhammaraja (Dasabodhi., chap. III): cp. king Śreņika contemporary with
Mahavira.
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(vi) The Tirthamkara-näma-karman notion of Jainism (cf. 2.2) has rightly been compared to the Buddhist Pāramitās : cf. P. S. JAINI, Tirthankara-prakṛti and the Bodhisattva-Path, Journal of the PTS IX, 1981, p. 98 ff. (96-104). The contexts where both concepts are adduced are also similar: cf. 2.2. about the connection between the twenty sthānakas and the Ts: incarnations in Jainism. In the later Buddhist tradition as recorded in the Buddhavamsatthakatha", the Buddha-karaka-dhammas which are defined as the ten (or thirty) Perfections leading to Buddhahood are mentioned on the occasion of the twenty-five Buddhas' incarnations, (including Gotama):
e. g. 141, 28-142,5 paramiyo paretva Tusitapure nibbattitva.... Tusita käyä cavitva....kucchismim patisandhim ganhi; ibid. 78,35;79,9; 160, 19-26; etc. 272, 33-36.
Conclusion.
The interest in future Prophets which is seen to have thus developed is but natural in doctrines where time is thought of as evolving in cycles as is wellknown, similar developments also took place in Hinduism (Visquism) where Kalkin, the future Visņu's avatara, is conceived as destined to put an end to the Kali-Yuga90. The Jaina teachings and stories concerning the destinies of Future Tirthankaras make it clear that they are closely linked with the theories of samsära and karman; there, the Messianic aspect is not so important as the individual improvement which everybody has to attain for himself. The Tirthankaranamakarman makes it possible, while the idea of a unique Saviour would be,so-to-say, unacceptable.
4. Synoptical chart of data about Future Tirthamkaras.
N. B. No serial-number is assigned to the names mentioned in the Than (column 1) in the text. Here they have been placed in front of the corresponding ones in the Samav.
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