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Prelude
97
A - Ādinātha and Brahmi-Sundari
The king of Kośala or Ayodhyā, son of Nābhi and Marudevi, is known by five names: Rşabha, bull; Prathamarājā, first king; Prathamabhikṣācara, first mendicant ascetic; Prathamajina, first jina; Prathamatirthankara, first tirthankara. Tradition gave him the name Ādinātha, that is, Lord or Master of the origins, the One who first established the dharma. Ādinātha was a kindly, knowledgeable and capable monarch. He taught his subjects the art of writing, numerous branches of knowledge, including mathematics, and sundry arts and crafts. 10 Then, after renouncing his family and his kingdom, and sharing out his princedom between his one hundred sons, he became an ascetic with a following of certain knights and princcs.11 After a period of lengthy fasts and prolonged mental concentration, he attained perfect knowledge and understanding. 12 Among his disciples; several evinced a high degree of knowledge, certain became omniscient and, to crown all, there were reckoned to be three hundred thousand äryikās led by his two daughters, Brāhmi and Sundari. Forty! thousand of these äryikās attained the state of perfection which follows Liberation 13 His disciples also included a large number of śramaņa - upāsakas and śramana - upāsikäs, that is to say, men and
which the prinicipal ones are the same as those venerated by the Svetambaras.
9 Cf. KS 194.
10 CE. KS 195.
11 Ibid.
12 Cf. KS 196; perfect knowledge: kevala-jñāna.
13 Ibid., cf. KS 197: cattālisaṁ ajjiyasahassão siddhão.
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