Book Title: Mahapurana Part 3
Author(s): Pushpadant, P L Vaidya
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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Page 23
________________ 20 MAHĀPURANA King Madhukrida sent his messengers to Sudarśana and demanded tribute from him which he refused. They fought. Purusasimha killed Madhukrida and became an Ardha-cakravartin. In the same regime there lived a king named Sumitra at Saketa. He had a queen called Bhadra. She gave birth to a son, Maghavan by name, who, having conquered the six continents of the earth, became the third sovereign of the Jain Mythology. After having enjoyed the kingdom for a long time, he renounced the world and attained emancipation. After some time in the same regime there came the fourth cakravartin, Sanatkumāra by name. He was the son of king Anantavirya and queen Mahadevī of Vinītapura. He was said to be extremely beautiful. Two gods sent by Indra came to see his beauty and said to the king that his beauty would have been everlasting if there had been no oldage and death. On hearing the mention of oldage and death Sanatkumāra renounced the world and attained emancipation. LX. A Brahmin named Amoghajihva once predicted that within a week lightning would fall on the head of king Srivijaya, the son of Triprstha Vasudeva, and that he would receive a shower of gems on his head. When the Brahmin was asked how he could predict such a thing, he said he studied the science under a famous teacher. One day, when he asked his wife for his meals, she served him only cowries in a plate, as, owing to extreme poverty, she had nothing else in her house. His wife then rebuked him that he did not work and earn money. Just at this time a spark of fire fell on his plate and his wife disbursed a pot of water over his head. It is from this incident that he predicted the fall of lightning on the head of king Srivijaya and a shower of gems over his head. The ministers thereupon advised the king to abdicate the throne for a wbile in order to escape the calamity and to place some one on throne for the time being. The samdhi then narrates the enmity and fight between Srivijaya and Amitatejas, a Vidyadhara. A monk intervenes, preaches them the doctrines of Jainism as a result of which they both become monks. LXI. In their next birth Srivijaya and Amitatejas were born in heaven as gods Manicula and Ravicala. In their next birth they were born as sons of Stimitasāgara of the city of Prabhāvati by his queens Vasundhara and Anumati, and were called Ananta vīrya and Aparăjita. They had two beautiful dancing girls in their court which were demanded by a Vidyadhara king named Damitāri. LX-LXIII. These four samdhis narrate the life of Santi together with his previous births as also of Cakrāyudha, as detailed in LXIII. 11 and explained in the Notes. LXIV. For the life of Kunthu see the Tables. LXV. For the life of Ara see the Tables. During the regime of Ara, there appeared the eighth cakravartin, Subhauma# * The story of Jamadagni, Paraśurāma and Subhauma here is a mixture of two stories on the side of the Hindu mythology, viz , the story of the carrying away of Vasiştha's cow, Nandini, by Gadhi, and of Kártavirya Sahasrarjuna and Paraśurāma. For Private & Personal Use Only Jain Education International www.jainelibrary.org

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