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सुपार्श्व
चन्द्रप्रभ
सुविधि
शीतल
श्रेयांस
वासुपूज्य
FOREWORD
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ध्वजा
कुम्भ
पा
सरोवर
समुद्र
In the theist world the loftiest entity is The God!
It has thousands of names like-Paramatma (the ultimate soul), Bhagavan (the most glorious one), Siddha (the liberated), Buddha (the enlightened). The God, etc.
In the Jain tradition there are two forms of this entity(1) The formless God or Siddha (the liberated) (2) The God with a form or Tirthankar/Arihant
The Tirthankar is a detached individual who is the ultimate altruist and benefactor of not only mankind but every living being. He propagates the religious path and preaches about it for their benefit. His benevolent voice promotes happiness, peace, and infinite bliss for every being.
In the Jain tradition their have been twenty four Tirthankars during the current descending cycle of time, Bhagavan Rishabhdev being the first and Bhagavan Mahavir the last.
For every Jain these Tirthankars are the entities to be worshipped and revered. The ultimate goal of Jainism is to tred the path shown by them and acquire infinite powers and virtues.
Out of these twenty four Tirthankars, many authors have written the biographies of Bhagavan Rishabhdev and Bhagavan Mahavir. But very little has been done about authentic and complete biographical sketch of all the twenty four Tirthankars. And it is even harder to get this material.
When we edited the Illustrated Kalpasutra we compiled brief life-sketches of all Tirthankars. As it is already a large volume we had to be selective in any further additions. It was at that time that we thought to compile life-sketches of all the Tirthankars in an independent book; it would be useful for all. The original plan was to include these brief biographical sketches within a 50 page book, but as the work progressed it became impossible to follow the plan. Although most of the inspiring incidents from earlier incarnations of the Tirthankars had to be left, the book became much larger than what we originally thought of. However, whatever has been included will hopefully prove to be adequately useful, educative, interesting and inspiring for our readers.
Scriptures like Bhagavati Sutra, Acharanga, Jambudvipa Prajnapti, Samvayang and others contain stray incidents from lives of Tirthankars. Kalpasutra just lists all the Tirthankars and their periods besides giving brief details about Rishabhdev, Parshvanath, Arishtanemi, and Mahavir. It was Acharya Bhadrabahu who first of all attempted to compile biographical sketches of all Tirthankars in brief. Later others worked on providing more detailed biographies in a variety of styles both, interesting as well as informative. Some of these later works are Pravachansaroddhar, Chauppanna Mahapuris Chariyam (Shilankacharya), Trishashtishalaka Purush Charitra (Hemchandracharya), Adipurana (Acharya Jinasen), Uttarpurana (Gunabhadra), Tiloyapannatti (Yativrishabhacharya), etc. Considerable material is available about the lives of Tirthankars from various works in Prakrit, Sanskrat and Apabhramsha languages.
विमानभवन
राशि
निर्धूम अग्नि
मल्लि
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अरिष्टनेमि
पार्श्व
महावीर
Jamn Education International 2010_03
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