Life and Stories of Jaina Savior Parcvanatha

Author(s): Maurice Bloomfield
Publisher: Maurice Bloomfield

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Life and Stories of Pārçvanātha
valajñānam utpede | Dharaṇendrabhayabhīto Meghamāli prabhupādayor lagnaḥ / mithyā duḥkrtam dadāu.
Dharana or Dharaṇendra, king of the serpents, continues a lively existence in Jain writings as saint and thaumaturge. In Merutuñga's Prabandhacintāmaņi, p. 311, the king of Pātāla, Dharaṇendra, cures the Jain doctor Abhayasūri by licking his body with his tongue, afterwards showing him Stambhanaka, the holy place of Pārçva. In Kathākoça, p. 184, he saves King Cetaka, when he falls into a well while holding an image of the Jina in his hand. See also Weber, Bhagavatī, p. 211. Dharana continues in relation with and is worshiped by Vardhamāna,45 the 24th Arhat; see Weber, Berlin Handschriftenverzeichnisse, vol. ii, pp. 991, 1036; he is mentioned together with Padmāvati, Pārçva's Yakṣiṇī, ib. 1039, being the alternate of the above mentioned Yakşa (Pārçva) as attending genius of the Arhat.
Many holy places connected with Pārçva's career of self-culture or evangelism, as mentioned in this Caritra, seem to have enjoyed wide fame among the Jains. Thus, in 6. 140, and in the first stanza of the Praçasti at the end of the book, Kalikuņda, a tīrtha on lake Kuņda, so called, because it was near the Kali mountain (kaleḥ kundasya āsannabhāvitvāt), is quoted Çatrumjaya Māhātmyam 14. 25 ff.; in Hansaratna's Ullekha (prose version) of the same work (see Weber, 1. c., p. 1073); and in Viraprabandha, çloka 9 (Prabhāvaka Carita, p. 206). Two other tīrthas or towns of our text, Ahichatrā, 6. 145, and Kurkuțeçvara, 6. 167, whose names are explained by legends, are mentioned in the Çatrumjaya Māhātmyam 14. 34-40, and in the same Ullekha. A tirtha named Stam
"Or Mahåvira, who is understood to have been in the beginning of his career a Cramaņa follower of Pårçva; see Ayārañga-Sutta 2. 15. 16.