Heart of Jainism

Author(s): Mrs Sinclair Stevenson
Publisher: Mrs Sinclair Stevenson

Page 79

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bhu.
AND DISCIPLES child's birth, so he was given the name of Su (good) pārsva (side). His emblem is the Svastika symbol . Unlike the other earlier Tirthankara he attained mokṣa with only five hundred companions. Nine thousand crores of sāgara of time had elapsed since the death of his predecessor, and his height was two hundred bow-shots.
After a further interval of nine hundred crores of sāgara 8. Canof time the eighth Tīrthankara was born; his height was drapraone hundred and fifty bow-shots. Before his birth his mother (the wife of the Rajput king of Candrapuri) longed to drink the moon (candra). To assuage her craving, a plate of water was one night handed to her in such a way that the moon was reflected in it; when the child was born, he was found to be as bright and white as the moon, which accordingly became his emblem, and he was called Candraprabhu.
Two names are given to the next Tirthankara. Owing 9. Suvi. to the peace he brought to a distracted family, all of whose dhinātha. kingly relatives were warring against one another, he is called Suvidhinātha, for on his birth they gave up fighting and took instead to performing their religious duties (suvidhi); but as his teeth were so beautiful that they resembled the buds of an exquisite flower (puspa), he was also called Puşpadanta. There is a dispute over his emblem: the Svetāmbara say it is the crocodile, while certain Digambara declare it is the crab. Ninety crores of sāgara elapsed before his birth, and his height was one hundred bow-shots.
The tenth Tirthankara had a marvellous power of im- 10. Śitaparting coolness (śītaļatā) to fevered patients. Before his lanātha. birth his mother laid her hand on her husband, the Rajput king of Bhaddilapura, and immediately the fever which had defied all the efforts of his physicians left him, and all his life long the saint had a similar power, hence his name, Sitaļanātha, Lord of Coolness. His sign is the Śrīvatsa svastika 2, or according to the Digam. bara, the Ficus religiosa. His height was ninety bow-shots,