Jain Legend Vol 1

Author(s): Hastimal Maharaj, Shuganchand Jain, P S Surana
Publisher: Hastimal Maharaj Shugan C Jain P S Surana

Page 95

Lord r Sambhavan tha
A long time after Lord Ajitan tha came the third t rthamkara, r Sambhavan tha. Inhis past life as king Vipulav hana, on account of highly meritorious deeds he gained the T rthamkara n ma-karma. King Vipulav hana used to rule over the kingdom of K emapur . He loved his subjects. Once a terrible famine broke and Vipulav hana was very worried. He could not see his subjects suffer the pangs of hunger. He ordered the officials that all food-stock in the warehouses of the kingdom should be distributed among the people. He took care of even the ascetics and religious people. He made arrangements to feed faultless food to the monks and mendicants and would feed the pious people in his presence till they were content. In this way, through serving the four-fold order of mendicants with pure feelings he gained pious karmas to become eligible for the T rthamkara status.
Once watching the clouds form and disperse he gained knowledge of the actual reality of this world and of impermanence and became detached in his mind. Taking initiation from c rya Svayamprabhu, he worshipped the religion of self-restraint and attaining his death by fasting, he became a god in the nata heaven in the ninth kalpa.
Birth and Naming
After completing his time as a god, Vipulav hana's soul descended from the heaven into the womb of Sen dev , queen of king Jit ri of r vast , on the eighth day of the bright fortnight of F lguna month under the constellation M ga ira. Queen Sen dev saw the 14 auspicious dreams that night and listening to the meaning of those dreams from the king Jit ri, became delighted. After nine months in the mother's womb, he was born at midnight, on the 14th day of the bright fortnight of Mrga r a month under M ga ira constellation. Ever since he entered the mother's womb the kingdom was brimming with huge quantities of s mba grain (paddy), lentils, etc and the fields were verdant with paddy crops, hence his parents named him Sambhavan tha.
Marriage, kingship and initiation
After completing his childhood, when Sambhavan tha became a young man, the king Jit ri got him married and entrusting the kingdom to him,
95