Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 1

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

Page 131

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times the bell Sughoşā 168 which has a wonderful sound for a radius of a yojana, he made it ring. With Sughoşā the bells of all the other palaces rang, like birds singing with the bird leading the singing. The sound of these bells increased from the echoes arising in the skies like a family of the noble from sons resembling themselves. Springing up in thirty-two lacs of palaces, the sound expanded in the form of echoes like a word in the palate. The gods sunk in negligence were dazed by that sound. Saying, "What is this?” confused, they paid attention. Vajrin's general announced to them, attentive, in a voice deep as thunder: "Hear, all you gods. Pākaśāsana, whose command is not to be transgressed, instructs you with your retinues, goddesses, etc. 'In the southern half of Bharata in Jambūdvipa the first Tirthakrt is born in the family of the Patriarch Nābhi. Hasten, like us, for the purpose of making the kalyāna-festival at his birth. Henceforth there is no other duty.
Some from devotion to the Arhat, like deer windwards; some drawn by Sakra's command, like iron by a magnet; some made to move by their wives, like aquatic monsters by the river-floods; some carried along by friends, like perfumes by the winds--the gods came by means of shining cars and other conveyances to Sakra's presence as if making another heaven. Vāsava instructed an Ābhiyogikagod named Pālaka, “Make a car that can not be copied.” Then Pālaka, observing the Lord's command, made a car that filled the sky with a flood of light from a thousand jeweled pillars; having eyes, as it were, in the form of windows; having teeth, as it were, in the form of balconies; having horripilation, as it were, in the form of finials; five hundred yojanas high and a hundred thousand square,149 moving from the inference of a wish.
148 341. The bell in Sakra's palace.
149 356. This is the usual description of Sakra's car, and other cars are described in the same proportions; but in all representations of the cars they are invariably much higher than wide.