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The Followers of the Ever Growing One
203
At the eve of his life he undertook the Great Fast while on a journey down in the South. The story goes that he had a sādhvi sister, Siddha Sri. When a messenger disclosed to her in veiled terms the news of the Great Departure of her brother, saying that:
"Those who are engaged in philosophical discussion in the
South are shining like glow-worms", she perceived his meaning and continued with the words:
"Because now the Sun, Siddhasena the philosopher, has set."191 Thereupon she too, knowing well the frailty of the body, its transient and perishable nature, embarked on the final fast and attained the state of perfection.192
The few documents introduced here date from the XIth to XVIIIth centuries and refer only to the Digambara äryikās, because it is certain groups of ancient and famous temples of that tradition and some seats of Bhattārakas that are available for our study. The three first sets of documents belong to Madhya Pradeśa, the others to Mahārāştra.193
a) At Devagadha
The Citadel of the devas is situated, according to present-day state boundaries, in the border-area between Uttara Pradeśa (Northern Province) and Madhya Pradeśa (Central Province). In a lonely hilly spot beyond the small town of Lalitapura is to be found this Citadel of thirty-one temples, all of them Digambara, built during different periods. Deva, in this context, denotes in the first place the arhats and also, but only secondarily, the divine beings of the heavenly realm. The use of the same word, deva, for both could lead to confusion - the
191 sphuranti vādikhadyotāḥ samprataṁ dakṣināpathe
nūnamastangato vādiSiddhaseno divákaraḥ. Prabhāvakacarita VIII, 174.
192 sāpi sāpāyata käye vimrśyanaśanaṁ vyadhāt
gitárthavihitāradhānayāsau sadgatis yayau. Ibid. VIII, 175. cf. Saṁghamitră, 1979, pp. 198-207.
193 The archaeological and epigraphical documentation of these regions is rich, but has not been fully released or studied. Only that which concerns the äryikās has been used here.
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