Comprehensive History Of Jainism

Author(s): Aseem Kumar Chatterjee
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt Ltd

Page 44

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A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF JAINISM
dream: an elephant, a bull, a lion, an anointment, a garland, the moon, the sun, a flag, a vase, a lotus lake, the ocean, a celestial abode, a heap of jewels and a flame.
The following idea then struck Śakra (Indra), the king of gods:
It never has happened, nor does it happen, the Arhats, Cakravartins, Baladevas or Vasudevas, in the past, present or future, should be born in low families, mean families, degraded families, poor families, indigent families, beggars' families or Brahmanical families... [they] are born in high families, noble families, royal families, noblemen's families, in families belonging to the race of Ikṣvāku, or of Hari or in other such families of pure descent on both sides."
Then he asked Harinegamesi, commander of the infantry (evidently another name of Skanda, who is also known as Naigameya or Naigameśa) to transfer the embryo from the womb of Devānandā to that of Trisala of the Vasistha gotra, wife of Ksatriya Siddhartha of the Kasyapa gotra, belonging to the Ksatriya part of the Kundapura town. This Siddhartha, we are further told, was a scion of the clan of Jñātṛs (Prākṛta Naya). The order was promptly carried out. This event, according to the above-mentioned texts, took place on the eighty-third day after Mahāvīra's descent from heaven into the womb of Devanandā, when the moon was once more in conjunction with Uttaraphalguni. It was the thirteenth day of the dark half of the month of Aśvina. The Kalpasūtra further informs that in that night (eighty-third) Devanandā dreamt that the fourteen objects of her dream were taken from her by Triśalā. At the same time, the Ksatriya lady Triśalā saw those fourteen objects entering her own dream.
No modern historian can accept the transfer of embryo story, whatever may be its antiquity.10 It is more probable that Devanandă was Mahāvīra's real mother and he was subsequently accepted by Kṣatriya Siddhartha as his adopted son. In this connection I should point to the story told in the Bhagavati11 regarding Devananda's meeting with Mahāvīra. This meeting took place at the Brahmanical part of Kuṇḍagrāma. We are told that at that time (i.e., when Devananda saw Mahāvīra when the latter was already a kevalin) milk oozed from the breasts of that Brāhmaṇa lady. When Gautama enquired about this, his chief disciple, Mahāvīra, explained that she was his mother, and it was because of her motherly affection that this had occurred. I quote here Mahāvīra's original words:
Devāṇamdā māhani mamaṁ ammagā, ahaṁ nam Devāṇaṁdāe māhaṇīe attae; taenam sa Devāṇamdā māhani tenam puvvaputtasineharāgenam agaya