Vijaydharmasuri

Author(s): A J Sunavala
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Page 40

VI
COMMENCEMENT OF A TRIUMPHAL TOUR
PANNYĀSA-PADA SOME time before his death Vriddhi Chandra had recommended Dharma Vijaya for the Pannyāsa-pada, which gave him the first place among the disciples. And Dharma Vijaya was fully qualified to be the successor of his preceptor. His sermons had already engaged the attention and interest of the people; the fame of his discourses and disputations had already spread; the strength of his courage and convictions had already begun to be extensively known.
THE NET RESULT OF THE TOUR Dharma Vijaya was now left without a guide, to be himself a guide to others. Ever since the day of his consecration as a monk he had made up his mind to become a preacher for the benefit of mankind. With this end in view, soon after his Guru's death, he left Bhawnagar, and, except for the Chaturmāsa of each year,--the four months of the rainy season, during which Jain monks are not allowed to peregrinate, he proceeded from place to place bare-headed and bare-footed, with no conveyance but his bare feet, with no luggage but his begging-bowl, with no guide but his faith. Endowed with knowledge and righteousness and austerity, vowed to perpetual