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A. CHAKRAVARTI :
went on their royal elephant to offer pūjā to this Tīrthaikara and to listen to his preachings. Listening to this dharma-upadēša these two princes became his disciples and were accepted as gañadharas, chief disciples, of the Lord. They, in their turn, spent their life in propounding dharma and finally, by the performance of yoga, attained mukti. The classic is named after these two princes, Meru and Mandara, and hence called Mērumandira-purāņam. It consists of 30 chapters of 1405 stanzas on the whole. Some ten years ago the present writer published this work with introduction and notes, and it is available to the reading public.
Śrīpurāņa :--This Śrīpurāņa is a very popular work among the Tamil Jainas. I do not think there is anybody who has not heard the name Sripuräņa. It is written in an enchanting prose style in manipravāļa, mixed Tamil and Sanskrit. It is based on Jinasēna's Mahāpuräna and is also further called Trişaștišalakapuruşa-purāņu dealing with 63 heroes. It is by an unknown author. Most probably it is a corresponding work to the Kannada Trişastišalakäpuruşapurana by Cāmundarāya. Hence it must be later than the Jinasena-Mahapurāna and Cāmundarāya's Kannada Purāņa. The 63 heroes whose history is narrated in this work are the 24 Tirthařkaras, the 12 Cakravartins, 9 Vāsudēvas, 9 Baladēvas and 9 Prativāsudevas. In the case of the Cūļāmaņi story we already noted Tivițţa, the Vāsudēva, Vijaya, the Baladēva and Aśvagrīva, the Prativāsudēva. Similarly Rāma, Lakşmaņa and Rāvaņa of Rāmāyaṇa fame are included
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