Book Title: Jain Legend Vol 1
Author(s): Hastimal Maharaj, Shuganchand Jain, P S Surana
Publisher: Hastimal Maharaj Shugan C Jain P S Surana

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Page 257
________________ One of the main reasons for this seems to be the impact of Lord Pr van tha on the former lives of the 220 gods and goddesses. A large gathering of people from various places at Lord Mah v ra's samava ara a watched for real the prosperous display of spectacles by those gods and goddess and, hearing the description of their past lives from the knower of the three time cycles, Lord Mah v ra, they understood that all of them were part of the entourage of Lord Pr van tha, which must certainly have caused them to feel tremendous devotion and undying faith in Lord P r van tha. We find out from the accounts of these old unmarried women that certain circumstances of the time made it difficult for women from even prosperous families to find suitable grooms and turning their insipid and hopeless lives towards the firm path of spiritual practices the Lord indeed gave a respite to the society. Those unmarried old women definitely attained godly prosperity by the grace of P r van tha. The society of that time, knowing all this, must have certainly become indebted and devoted to him. In his childhood the Lord helped Prasenajita and liberated the An rya king of Kalimga who took refuge in the Lord and got inspired by his teachings. After attaining omniscience the Lord wandered to An rya place as well and made innumerable people in these places part of his religious order. It seems it is because of these specialties and reasons that Lord P r van tha became influential, popular and respected among people of both An rya and rya regions and came to be called 'Puru d n ya'. The c rya tradition under Lord P r van tha According to general norms, in the time period between the time-period of niry a of one T rthamkara and rejuvenating of the religious order by another T rthamkara, the previous T rthamkara's religious order and c rya tradition continues. There were numerous c ryas even before the 23'T rthamkara but there being no substantive information regarding them they have not been highlighted. But there is substantive information available regarding the c ryas of Lord P r van tha. Prior to the timeperiod of Lord Mah v ra, there is only an interval of 250 years. According to Kalpas tra until the time of the fourth epochal person (c rya) after liberation of Lord P r van tha, all c ryas are believed to 257

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