Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 2

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

Page 194

169
weapon and also humorous tales with their companionkings seated in the vehicles, they arrived one day at Aṣṭāpada, which is an herb for removing hunger and thirst merely by its sight, the abode of a wealth of punya.
LIFE AND DEATH OF THE SONS OF SAGARA
Visit to Aşṭapada (88-127)
When they saw the mountain having a continuous festival; made of crystal; with great pools, like a depository of nectar of the gods; looking as if it had put on a dark upper garment because of the thick green trees; having large wings, as it were, from the clouds on both sides; marked, as it were, by floating banners in the form of cascades ; the pleasure-house of Vidyadharas, like a new Vaitāḍhya, singing, as it were, with the low sounds of the happy peacocks, etc.; presided over by Khecaris, like a shrine with sandal-wood figures; like a tiara of the earth made of jewels; constantly visited by flying ascetics with the desire to worship the shrine, like Nandiśvaradvipa, they asked the ministers, Subuddhi and others:
"What mountain is this, resembling one of the heavenly pleasure-mountains of the Vaimānikas which has descended to earth? By whom was this wonderful, lofty shrine made, resembling the eternal temple on Mt. Himavat?" Then the ministers said, "Formerly Lord Rṣabha, the founder of your family and of the congregation, lived in this Bhārata. His son Bharata, the eldest of ninety-nine brothers, was the ruler of six-part Bharatakṣetra. This was the pleasure-mountain, the abode of many wonders, named Aṣṭapada, of the Cakrin, like Sumeru of Vajrin. The Blessed Rṣabha Svamin attained emancipation here on the mountain together with ten thousand sadhus. Immediately after Rṣabha Svāmin's nirvāņa, Lord Bharata erected here the shrine, named Sinhaniṣadya, out of precious stones.
With extreme devotion he erected here according to rule the statue of Rsabha Svämin and the statues of the twenty-three future Arhats, made of flawless precious