Jainthology

Author(s): Ganesh Lalwani
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 79

On the night Lord Mahavira was to achieve nirvāna a comet Bhaşma Rāśi Graha would appear on his birth nak satra. This would prove very ominous for his religion for a period of full two thousand years. At the end of 1990 years after the nirvāṇa another comet-dhūmaketu would come on his birth nakşatra which would also cast bad effect on his religion for another 333 years. Only after the expiry of this period (combined) i.e. 2323 years, Jainism and its followers would again come into lime light.
The another story referring to this event appeared in the treaties on Kalpa Sutra which is as under:
Indra, the king of Gods, foresighting this event rushed to Lord Mahāvira on that night and humbly prayed to him that a comet Bhaşma Rasi Graha with very ominous effect would be appearing on his birth nakştra at the time of his nirvāņa. To forestall the bad effect of the comet he prayed to Lord Mabăvira to delay or to hasten a bit his departure. To this Lord Mahävira answered that though the Tirthankara are all powerful (omnipotent) they have no control over their death.
The version in Banka Culia, composed by Yaśobhadra Svämi, was more or less the same as we have seen in Kalpa Sūtra,
Thereafter in the interval of more than 2000 years we do not find any mention of this historical event in any of the Jaina literature. While the Jaina scholars of mediaeval times (monks and others) had left no subject untouched one wonders how did this important event escaped their notice. And it is equally regretable to note that none of the modern scholars has yet focussed their attention to this.
The reference in Kalpa Sutra and Banka Culiā clearly depicts that a comet called Bhaşma Räsi Graha appeared on the night of Lord Mahavira's nirvāņa. What effect did it cast on his religion is purely a subject matter of Astrology. But our main and foremost object in this article is to find whether any comet as depicted earlier appeared on that celebrated night and if it did what was the nature of that comet.
What are the comets !
The comets are also the members of our solar family, like the sun,
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