Book Title: Tirthankar Parshwanath
Author(s): Ashokkumar Jain, Jaykumar Jain, Sureshchandra Jain
Publisher: Prachya Shraman Bharti

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Page 319
________________ २५६ तीर्थकर पार्श्वनाथ sorrowful and cruel concentrations (arta and raudra dhyana) into ameritorious concentration, which resulted into the reptiles' being respectively, Dharanendra and Padmavati in their next birth in the Naga-Kumara class of the Residential order of celestial ones (Bhavana-vasi deva). They both, in their new form, attained the most auspicious position of Yaksa and Yaksi of the Sasana-devata couple to preside over the period (Sasana) ended with the birth of Mahavira in 599 B.C. They appeared then and there to adore Parsvanatha, who had to face the misapprehensive actions of the enraged Kamatha. In his next birth Kamatha came to be known as Megha-malin, a god in the Asura class of the Peripatetic order (Vyantara deva) and variously referred to as Samvara, Sambara and Bhut-ananda. Megha-malin once found Parsvanatha standing in uiter concentration, it being the safest chance for him to take his revenge. He appeared in the transformations (Vikriya) of a lion, a leopard, an elephant, a scorpion and so on, to torture Parsvanatha, and, after all, he caused by his celestial power rain in torrents, hurling of stones, tumultuous noise and so on to happen. Parsvanatha, however, remained standing like that, unswerved and unshook in concentration. Dharanendra came to know all these happenings which were immediately controlled by him, as he appeared there with Padmavati and other goddesses. He transformed his body into a multi-hooded cobra (ahi) like an umbrella (chatra) to canopy his lord's body, whenceforth that place, called, Sankhyavati, came to be known as Ahicchatra or Ahi-cchatra-pura. ‘The place was identified with the modern Nagore in Jodhpur State, which is regarded as a place of pilgrimage by the Jainas. It is now better identified and proved by archaeclogical discoveries, with a ruined site bearing the same name near Ramnagar in the Bareilly district ofU.P.

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