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36
KALPA SÚTRA.
to come, an Arhat*, a Chakravartit, a Vasudeva‡, receives birth in a noble family, an honorable family, a royal family, a Kshatriya family, as in the family of Ikshváku, or the Harivansha family, or some such of pure descent. Now truly there threatens to take place a wonder which has never happened, nor does happen, nor will happen in the world throughout the course of infinite Utsarpinis, and Avasarpinis. His first origin, the act of giving him a family name, must be such as to consort with an undecaying, indescribable, indestructible renown. I say, then, that the birth of an Arhat, a Chakravarti, a Baladeva, or a Vasudeva has not taken place, nor does, nor will take place in a low caste, servile, contemptible, poor, beggarly, miserly, or Brahman family, such a thing neitherwas, is, nor shall be, and yet the venerable ascetic Mahávíra has just now descended to the continent of Jambudvipa, the country of Bharata, to the Brahman division of the town of Kundagráma, and
*The highest class of sages among the Jains, are worthy of divine honours.
In Magadhi, Chakkavatti, an emperor, a king who has other kings under him.
The Jains make Krishna and others belong to the class of demigods styled Vasudevas; Bala Ráma they make a Baladeva, a still inferior kind of demigod.
§ Immense cycle of ages. See Preface.
