________________
INTRODUCTION
Baladevas, Vasudevas and Prati-Vasudevas, and ten out of twelve Cakravartins. from Sagara to Jayasena. In narrating these lives the poet has followed the information handed down by tradition and seems to have been greatly influenced by Gunabhadra's Uttarapurana in Sanskrit. It appears that the details of the lives of these Great Men were codified by old monks, but individual poets handling the theme were free to use their poetic genius in detailed description. Vimalasüri in his Paumacariya, for instance, says :
नामावलियनिवई आयरियपरंपरागयं सवं ।
वच्छामि पउमचरियं अहाणुपुचि समासे ॥ १.८.
13
Although most of the information seems to have been codified and tabulated and handed down by tradition of each of the two schools of the Jainas, there is considerable uniformity in the subject matter. I have myself prepared some Tables. and given them in the form of Appendices to this Volume. I now proceed to give the summary of contents by samdhis where such summary cannot be given in a tabular form.
Jain Education International
XXXVIII. The Poet at the beginning offers salutations to the five Parameşthis and assures the reader to continue his work by narrating the life of Ajita the second prophet of the Jainas. But before he proceeds he says that for some reason he was uneasy at heart and so stopped his literary activity for some time. One day the goddess of Learning appeared before him in dream and asked him to offer his salutations to the Arhats. The poet woke up but saw nobody before him. At this juncture Bharata, his patron, came to his house and asked him whether he (Bharata) offended him any way as a result of which he did not continue his work. Bharata reminded the Poet further that the life was fickle and that he should make full use of the gift of his poetic powers. The Poet then said to his patron that he was uneasy at heart because he found the world to be full of wicked people, and that, for that reason, he was not inclined to continue his composition, but that he would resume it at his request which he could not refuse. The Poet then resumes the work and narrates the life of Ajita. For details see Notes and the Tables in Appendices I, II, and III.
XXXIX. There lived a king named Jayasena at Prthvipura, the capital of Vatsavatt in the eastern Videha. He had two sons, Ratisepa and Dhrtisena by name, possessing great beauty. Of these Ratişepa died early. His father, overcome by grief, and disgusted with the worldly life, gave his kingdom to his son, Dhrtisega, and alongwith his minister Maharuta, became a monk. Both Jayasena and Mahiruta practised penance, and after death became gods named Mahābala and Maniketu. These two gods made an agreement between themselves that whoever would be born on the earth earlier should be taught by the other the highest Dharma. Of these Mahabala was born first on the earth as king Sagara of Saketa, and in course of time became a Cakravartin. Once a monk named Caturmukha attained Kevalajñana, on which occasion gods arrived on the earth. Sagara went there to pay his respects to the monk. Mapiketu saw king Sagara there and was reminded of his promise to god Mahabala. Mapiketu thereupon took the opportunity to tell Sagara how fickle the earthly prosperity was, but Sagara paid no heed to him. Once again Maniketu came to Sagara's palace to enlighten him, but this time also
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
