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MAHAPURANA
an Ardha-cakravartin. Nandimitra and Suketu were born as sons to king Rudra of Dvaravati by his wives Subhadra and Pṛthivi, and were named Dharma (Baladeva) and Svayambha (Vasudeva). One day Svayambha, while seated on the terrace of his palace, saw an army encamped outside the city and asked his minister whose army it was. His minister told him that a feudatory named Safisomya sent his tribute to king Madhu and that it consisted of elephants, horses etc., which was being taken. to him. Svayambha would not allow that, defeated Sasisomya and carried off the tribute. The news reached the ears of Madhu who thereupon marched against Svayambha. In the fight that followed Svayambha killed Madhu, and became an Ardha cakravartin. After enjoying the kingdom Svayambhu died and went to hell. Dharma became a monk and attained emancipation.
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LVII. This samdhi narrates an episode of Samjayanta, Meru and Mandara, out of which the two latter were the Ganadharas of Vimala, the thirteenth Tirthamkara. There are two more persons connected with the story, viz., Śrībhuti the minister and Bhadramitra the merchant. Of these the name of Śrībhuti is confounded with Satyaghosa. The poet describes the seven previous of the first three and only a few of the last two. A glance at the lists given in Notes on this Samdhi will facilitate the understanding of the reader.
In the city of Vitaloka there lived a king named Vaijayanta. His queen was called Sarvaśrī. She gave birth to two sons, Samjayanta and Jayanta, One day on hearing the discourse of a Jain monk they all renounced the world. In course of time Vaijayanta secured emancipation. Gods arrived on this occasion to show their reverence to Vaijayanta. Among them was the lord of snakes who was very beautiful. Jayanta formed a hankering to have a beautiful body like that of the lord of snakes in the next birth. He was then born in the nether world as lord of snakes.
One day, when Samjayanta was practising the pratimas, a Vidyadhara, Vidyuddanstra by name, saw him, picked him up and threw him into the waters of the confluence of five rivers, and told the people that the monk was a demon. The people thereupon beat him, but the monk remained undisturbed, and bearing the hardships, died and attained emancipation. On the occasion of his nirvana gods arrived including Jayanta who was then the lord of snakes. Finding the plight of his brother Samjayanta, the lord of snakes began to attack people. They however said that they beat the monk on the report of Vidyuddanstra. The lord of snakes then caught Vidyuddanṣtra, and while the former was about to throw the latter into the sea, god Adityaprabha intervened and narrated the story of the former lives of
them all.
There was a king named Simhasena in the city of Simhapura. His queen was named Ramadatts. He had two ministers, Śrtbhati and Satyaghosa. There was a merchant named Bhadramitra, the son of Sudatta and Sumitra of Padmaṣandapura. Now this Bhadramitra, while wandering, obtained precious gems in Ratnadvipa, which, during his halt at Simhapura, he deposited with Satyaghosa (There is later a confusion between Śrībhūti and Satyaghosa). After some time Bhadramitra asked for the return of his gems, but Satyaghosa denied all knowledge of gems even though
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