Kalpasutra

Author(s): J Stevenson
Publisher: Oriental Translation Fund London

Page 56

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KALPA SÚTRA.
Happy age (consisting of four hundred billions of oceans of years) had passed, and the Happy age also (of three hundred billions), and the Happy mixed with Misery likewise (of two hundred billions), and the Miserable tinged with Happiness (of one hundred billions of oceans of years) was also spent, except forty-two thousand and seventy-four years, and eight months and a half, after twentyone Tirthankars had been born, of the tribe of Ikshváku, and family of Kasyapa, and two in the Harivansa tribe, and family of Gautama. Twentythree Tirthankars had then passed away, when the adorable ascetic Mahávíra*, the last of the Tirthankars, and pointed out as about to obtain this dignity by those who preceded him, took up his abode as a foetus in the womb of the Brahmani Devanandi, of the family of Jalandhara, wife of Rishabha Datta Brahman, of the family of Kodala, of the city of Kundagám, at the middle of the night, at a fortunate conjunction of the moon and planets, having left his heavenly banquet, quitted his celestial abode, and laid aside his former body. In refer
*The original of these epithets of Mahávíra so often used is समणे भगवन् They might perhaps be equally well rendered the Ascetic Lord. The Sanskrit translation is,
ज्ञानवान्