Book Title: Life and Stories of Jaina Savior Parcvanatha
Author(s): Maurice Bloomfield
Publisher: Maurice Bloomfield

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Page 148
________________ 134 Life and Stories of Pārçvanātha after that he did reverence to the hermit and sat in front of him. Maniprabha considered his behavior out of place, but the Sage explained that the god was the soul of Yugabāhu become god in the fifth Kalpa; that Madanarekhā had made Yugabāhu's peace with everyone when he was at the point of death; that, therefore, Madanarekhā stood in the relation of religious instructor to this god. The god then asked Madanarekhā what he might do to please her, and she asked him to take her to Mithilā, that she might behold the face of her son; after that she would devote herself to religious works (914). The god took her to Mithila, where they met a holy woman in a neighboring nunnery, who preached to them the true religion. When the god offered to take Madanarekhā to the palace to see her son, she answered that there was no profit in natural affection, the cause of samsāra, and that she would take refuge with the feet of the holy women living there. The god then returned to heaven. Madanarekhā took the vow, received the name of Suvratā, and commenced a course of austere asceticism (921). By the power of her son all princes were made subject to Padmaratha, who, therefore, bestowed upon him the name Nami.42 When he had grown up, Padmaratha married him to 1008 wives; he himself, after destroying his karma by severe penance, went to bliss. After that, Nami, having subdued all kings, ruled the realm. Now in the very night in which Maạiratha killed his own brother Yugabāhu, he was bitten by a serpent and went to the fourth hell. He was succeeded by Candrayaças, 1. 18 (tippayahinam= tripradaksinam); 45, 1. 15; Pariçistaparvan 2. 44. See Tawney's notes to his Translation of Kathāsaritsāgara, vol. i, pp. 98, 573; vol. ii, pp. 365, note, 629. There is untranslatable pun here: 'subjected' is nata, from the root nam; Nami is construed as 'subjector.'

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