________________ 7 ( Prose) English Translation of the knowledge of the fourteen Purva books, endowed with the four knowledges, (holding sway over all the letters of the alphabet ], surrounded by five hundred houseless monks, elevating his soul by frequent observances of Shashtha fasts (and trying to realise by intuition the soul by self--restraint and penance of sitting in a posture of meditation with knees upwards and head bent down in a place not far away from the Divine Mahavira. At that instant, The sage Gautama had faith, doubt and curiosity produced, sprung up and risen in his mind ). He started by getting up. Having done it, he went to the place where the Divine Mahavira was, and having approached the Divine Mahavira, he moved reverentially round him thrice. Having done it, he bowed down and greeted him. Having done it, sitting neither far away, nor very near in his front, and waiting upon him with reverence and with hands folded ] he said the following-"Divine Sir, who was Kummaputta and how did he, residing in his house, obtain the infinite, unexcelled, unobstructed, unveiled, full, complete and excellent Kevalajnana and Kevaladar'sana ? Then the Divine monk Mahavira by a voice which extended to the distance of one Yojana and
