Tirthankaras of the Future

Author(s): Nalini Balbir
Publisher: Z_Aspect_of_Jainology_Part_3_Pundit_Dalsukh_Malvaniya_012017.pdf

Page 16

Tirthamkaras of the Future
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(v) The Dasabodhisattuppattikathā shows that persons said to become future Buddhas belong to two categories : historical characters who were alive in the Buddha's time, known to the Pali Canon, and others who are mere names on which stories have been hung.
A comparable distinction appears from the collation of the Jaina data (p. 16). Pasenadi, the king of Kosala contemporary with Gautama Buddha will be the Buddha Dhammarāja (Dasabodhi., chap. III): cp. king Sreņika contemporary with Mahāvira.
(vi) The Tirthamkara-näma-karman notion of Jainism (cf. 2.2) has rightly been compared to the Buddhist Päramitās : cf. P. S. JAINI, Tirthamkara-prakrti and the Bodhisattva-Path, Journal of the PTS IX, 1981, p. 98 ff. (96-104). The contexts where both concepts are adduced are also similar : cf. 2.2. about the connection between the twenty sthānakas and the Ts : incarnations in Jainism. In the later Buddhist tradition as recorded in the Buddhavamsatthakathā98, the Buddha-käraka-dhammas which are defined as the ten (or thirty) Perfections leading to Buddhahood 89 are mentioned on the occasion of the twenty-five Buddhas' incarnations, (including Gotama):
e. g. 141, 28-142,5: pāramiyo pūretvā Tusitapure nibbattitvā.... Tusita kaya cavitvā.... kucchismim patisandhim ganhi; ibid. 78,35;79,9; 160, 19-26; etc, 272, 33-36.
Conclusion.
The interest in future Prophets which is seen to have thus developed is but natural in doctrines where time is thought of as evolving in cycles as is wellknown, similar developments also took place in Hinduism (Vişnuism) where Kalkin, the future Vişnu's avatāra, is conceived as destined to put an end to the Kali-Yugaoo. The Jaina teachings and stories concerning the destinies of Future Tirthamkaras make it clear that they are closely linked with the theories of sampsāra and karman; there, the Messianic aspect is not so important as the individual improvement which everybody has to attain for himself. The Tirtharpkaranămakarman makes it possible, while the idea of a unique Saviour would be, -sd-to-say, unacceptable.
4. Synoptical chart of data about Future Tirthamkaras. N. B. No serial-number is assigned to the names mentioned in the Thän
(column 1) in the text. Here they have been placed in front of the corresponding ones in the Samav.