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LIFE OF MAHÁVÍRA.
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songs of triumph, and the purifying wind moving gently along, and circling around the place where lay the Lord and his mother. The joyous multitude were engaged in celebrating the vernål festival", and even the earth seemed to share in the delight. It was at midnight, under the constellation of Uttara Phálguni, at a lucky conjunction of the moon and planets, that the event took place. On the night in which the adorable ascetic was born, many gods and goddesses continued going and coming to and from this world with a divine splendour, manifesting, by laughter and other signs, the intensity of their joy. On the night in which the adorable ascetic Mahávíra was born, many divinities, dwellers in the world under the command of Kuvera, rained down showers of precious ores, gold, diamonds, garments, jewels, sweetsmelling leaves, of flowers, fruits, seeds, garlands, ambergris, sandal-w203, and strings of pearls. The four classes of gods, those who dwell in subterranean places, those of the aërial regions, those of the starry firmament, and those from the highest heavens, all flocked to the abode of the noble
* In the Deccan there is the Núruti Jayanti held at this time, but the great vernal festival is celebrated a month earlier. These festivals are not Brahmanical, but belong to the ancient ritual of the Hindus.
