World of Conquerors

Author(s): Natubhai Shah
Publisher: Natubhai Shah

Page 32

Parsvanatha If the life of Neminatha lies on an uncertain boundary between legend and history, there is no reason to doubt the historical existence of Parsvanatha, the twenty-third tirthankara of the present age. As he is said to have lived some 250 years before Mahavira, taking the traditional dates of Mahavira's life would place Parsvanatha in the ninth to eighth centuries BCE. He preached a fourfold code of conduct involving non-violence, truthfulness, and abstinence from taking what is not given and, fourthly, non-attachment to material possessions. It is said that this fourfold code was enjoined by all the twentytwo tirthankaras after Risabhdeva, with only Risabhdeva and Mahavira including the fifth vow, chastity, among the great vows. Other sources, however, attribute the fivefold code to Mahavira alone. (It has been argued that chastity was simply implicit in the other four vows and did not need separate mention). The last sermon delivered by Mahavira (Uttaraadhyayana Sutra), has an interesting discussion between Kesi, a follower of the way of Parsvanatha, and Indrabhuti Gautam, the chief disciple of Mahavira, in which Gautam dispels the doubts of Kesi on the articles of faith, including the fivefold vows, which mark the way preached by the twenty-fourth tirthankara. There is a reference to the 'fourfold rule' in the Tripitaka, the Buddhist collection of scriptures. The Buddhist scholar, Dharmananda Kosambi states in 'Parsvanathaka Caturyama Dharma' that the Buddha accepted the practices of Parsvanatha tradition for sometime (Kosambi date n.a: pp.28-31). Mrs Rys Davids in Gautama the Man (1928: pp.22-25) confirms that the Buddha adopted Jain practices of austerity in the early days of his search for the truth. The Jain tradition of non-violence, exemplified in the first rule of Parsvanatha's code of conduct, may have been the basis for the revulsion at the practice of sacrifices, which appears in the Upanishads.
Parsvanatha, the twenty-third tirthankara, was born in Varanasi (Benares) traditionally in 877 BCE and died at the age of 100. His father, Asvasena, was the ruler of the Kashi kingdom, of which Varanasi was the capital, and his mother was called Vamadevi. Needless to say, the sources describe Parsvanatha as handsome and strong, but much is made, however, of an incident showing his compassion. When he was out with his friends in the forest he saw an ascetic named Kamath who was enduring selfinflicted pain by exposing himself both to the blazing sun and to blazing fires. In one of the logs of wood, which the man was putting on the fire young Parsvanatha noticed two snakes and he implored the ascetic not to burn those living creatures. The ascetic had not seen the snakes and Parsvanatha had to get someone to split open the log to reveal them and set them free. The two snakes were severely burnt and in their dying moment Parsvanatha recited the Namokara Mantra to them, and because of this, the two snakes were reborn in their next lives as Dharanendra, King of the Nagas, the serpent deity, and Queen Padmavati. Kamath was reborn as a demon called Meghamali. The lives of these remained intertwined for, later, when Parsvanatha was an ascetic, the demon Meghamali assaulted him in various ways, and when the assault took the form of a fearful storm, Dharanendra protected him with a cobra hood above his head. This is why Parsvanatha's recognised symbol is a cobra and his images are depicted with a cobra hood.
It was seeing a picture of Neminatha, which is said to have directed the mind of Parsvanatha as a young man to renouncing the worldly life. Accounts differ as to whether he was married before he became an ascetic, the Digambar tradition makes no mention of