________________
RIŞABHA DEVA
the ancient Babylonians; the Buddhists posit fourand twenty previous Buddhas, that is, teaching gods. The Zoroastrians also have twenty-four
Ahuras who are regarded as "the mightiest to . advance desire and Dominion of blessings ! ”
These Great Ones are thus addressed in one of the sacred books of the Parsis :
“ Your blessings shall ye give us, all ye that are one in will, with whom right good thought, Piety and Mazda (are one), according to promise giving your aid when worshipped with reverence" (Yasna, li. 20).
But the more remarkable case of identity of thought between Jainism and a non-Jaina creed is furnished by Jewish Apocrypha which acknowledges exactly four and twenty “ faces” on the Ladder of Jacob. The explanation given is as follows:
“ The ladder which thou sawest which bad twelve steps haring two human faces which changed their appearance--now this ladder is this age, and the twelve steps are the times of this age, and the twenty-four faces are the kings of the lawless heathen of this age. Under these kings will be tried (thy children's children and the line of) thy sons . ..." (The Lost Apocrypha of the Old Testament, pages 96, 98 and 99.)
Of course, the language would not have been apocryphal had it been a little more lucid! But the true interpretation of the passage is not
