Life and Stories of Jaina Savior Parcvanatha

Author(s): Maurice Bloomfield
Publisher: Maurice Bloomfield

Page 23

Introduction
bhavimāna heaven;27 but the lion, at his own death, goes to the fourth hell.28
The soul of Marubhūti, after having passed thru nine existenons as high-born man or god, finally is reincarnated in the womb of Vāmādevī, queen of the mighty Ikşvāku king, Açvasena of Vārāṇasī. The events of this incarnation are described in the fifth sarga of our text with a degree of minuteness that reminds one of the Buddhology on the one hand, and of Mahāvīra's birth on the other hand. Not only the court of Benares, but also the entire Jaina Olympus is joyously interested in the gestation, birth, growth, and education of the future Lord of the World. Because the pregnant queen had seen in a troubled night a serpent by her side (pārçvataḥ), therefore he is called Pārçva. In accordance with a profesy he marries Prabhāvati, the perfect daughter of Prasenajit, king in Kuçasthala. But, in order to fulfill this item of his destiny, he must first convert a truculent rival for Prabhāvatī's hand, Yavana, king of Kaliñga.
In the mean time the soul of the lion, the Kamatha soul, is reborn as Katha,29 son of a Brahman, named Rora. Owing to the death of his parents, he is brought up by charity; carries on a miserable existence begging from house to house, shy and given to fear. Disgusted with life he turns ascetic, and subsists on the roots of plants.
One day Pārçva sees Katha, surrounded by a great
» Ninth pre-birth of the Marubhūti soul. 28 Ninth pre-birth of the Kamatha soul.
* L. does not mention this name, but substitutes the original eponymic Kamatha. Catrumjaya Måhåtmyam 14. 12 has Katha, but the variant Kamava points to the alternate Kamatha. Evidently the two names are interchangeable. This is the tenth pre-birth of the Kamatha soul, destined in the next birth, as the Asura Meghamålin, to be converted to Parçva's belief.