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186
Lord Mahavira
ELDERS I have contented myself with the barest names and dates, so to speak, omitting all other details. The five important events in the life of a Tirthankara are termed kalyanakas (celebrations). These are conception, birth, world flight, attainment of Omniscience and nirvana. The devas from heavens join men in celebrating them and their dates are remembered.
More than two preceding lives of some of the Tirthankaras are mentioned in the scriptures; but it is not considered necessary to mention them all in a small article like this. I have given ten preceding lives of the first Tirthankara in my “Rishabha Deva the Founder of Jainism”.
Many of the Tirthankaras were of golden colour; some were like the moon; one was of the colour of the lotus flower; one red; one black; one bluish; and two (the sixth and the twenty-third), were of a greenish hue. There is no significancy of the bodily colour in Jainism; but it may be an interesting point for the ethnologist to work on.
