Life and Stories of Jaina Savior Parcvanatha

Author(s): Maurice Bloomfield
Publisher: Maurice Bloomfield

Page 22

Life and Stories of Pārçvanātha
is reborn as a wild Bhilla, Kurangaka,21 infesting the mountain Jvalana. As Vajranābha happens to be present there in kāyotsarga posture, Kurangaka, out of prenatal hatred, hits him with an arrow. Vajranābha, tho struck fatally, remains free from evil thought, merely remarking that he had been killed by the soul of the Bhilla in a former existence. He is reborn as a god, Lalitāñga.22 Kurangaka, when he dies, goes to the Saptamāvani hell.23
The soul of Vajranābha falls from heaven and enters the womb of Sudarçanā, wife of King Vajrabāhu 24 of Surapura. The queen dreams the fourteen great dreams which augur the birth of a Cakravartin (emperor). In due time a son, Suvarnabāhu 25 is borne; he grows up with every accomplishment. The king takes the vow, leaving the kingdom to his son. One day Suvarnabāhu is carried off by a horse of inverted training to a hermitage, where he meets a royal maiden and her companion, quite in the manner of the Cakuntalā story. He carries away with him this maiden, Padmā, daughter of Ratnāvali, widow of the Vidyādhara king of Ratnapura, and becomes, by the aid of his wife's Vidyādhara relatives, a Cakravartin. In time he is converted by the Tirthamkara Jagannātha. One day, as he stands with a Jain image in the forest of Kşīragiri, he is attacked by a lion, inhabited by the soul of the Bhilla Kurañgaka, reincarnated in the lion's body,28 after leaving hell. He dies forgivingly; is reborn as a god in the Mahāpra
21 Sixth pre-birth of the Kamatha soul. - Seventh pre-birth of the Marubhūti soul. » Seventh pre-birth of the Kamatha soul. * L. Kulicabāhu.
38 Eighth pre-birth of Marubhuti soul. In L. the boy is named Kanakaprabha.
* Eighth pre-birth of the Kamatha soul.