The Previous Births of the Sixty-Three Shalaka Purushas

Having heard the full story of Ravana, the eighth Prati-narayana, and the branches of the Rakshasa and Vanara Vidyadhara clans, King Shrenika bowed to Gautama Ganadhara and asked to hear the lives of the Tirthankaras with their past births and their parents' names, and in which vamsha (dynasty) the world-famous eighth Baladeva, Shri Ramachandra, was born. Delighted, Gautama began by naming the twenty-four Tirthankaras: Rishabha, Ajita, Sambhava, Abhinandana, Sumati, Padmaprabha, Suparshva, Chandraprabha, Pushpadanta (Suvidhinatha), Shitala, Shreyamsa, Vasupujya, Vimala, Ananta, Dharma, Shanti, Kunthu, Ara, Malli, Munisuvrata, Nami, Nemi, Parshva and Mahavira, whose teaching now prevails.

He then gave the capitals where they lived in the human birth before their last heavenly one (Pundarikini, Susima, Kshema and Ratnasanchayapura, three Tirthankaras to each from Rishabha to Vasupujya, then Mahanagara, Arishtapura, Subhadrika, Pundarikini, Susima, Kshema, Vitashoka, Champa, Kaushambi, Hastinapura, Saketa and Chhatrakara), their names in that life, from Vajranabhi for Rishabha to Sunanda for Mahavira, their fathers in that life, from Vajrasena to Proshthila, and the heavens from which they descended, from Sarvarthasiddhi for Rishabha to Pushpottara for Mahavira. Munisuvrata, the twentieth, had in that earlier life been Shridharma of Champa, son of Samvara, and came down from the Aparajita heaven.

Gautama then gave each Tirthankara's birth city, father, mother, birth star, tree of renunciation and place of liberation, blessing Shrenika with each name: Rishabhadeva was born in Ayodhya to Nabhiraja and Marudevi under Uttarashadha, renounced under a banyan tree and was liberated on Mount Kailasa, and Ajitanatha was born in Ayodhya to Jitashatru and Vijaya. Munisuvrata was born in Kushagranagara to King Sumitra and Queen Padmavati under the Shravana star, renounced under a champaka tree and was liberated on Sammeda Shikhara, and Mahavira was born in Kundalapura to Siddhartha and Priyakarini and was liberated at Pavapura.

Rishabhadeva reached nirvana on Kailasa, Vasupujya at Champapura, Neminatha on Girnar and Mahavira at Pavapura, and all the rest on Sammeda Shikhara; Shanti, Kunthu and Ara were at once Tirthankaras, Chakravartis and Kamadevas (the most handsome men of their age), Vasupujya, Malli, Nemi, Parshva and Mahavira renounced as youths and stayed lifelong celibates without ever ruling, and the rest first reigned as great kings. Chandraprabha and Pushpadanta were white, Suparshva and Parshva green, Padmaprabha red as a lotus, Vasupujya red as the palasha flower, Munisuvrata dark as Mount Anjanagiri, Neminatha blue as a peacock's throat and the other sixteen golden; all received the birth-bath on the Pandushila of Mount Sumeru and all had the five kalyanakas (auspicious events).

Asked about the six periods of time and in which Tirthankara's interval Rama appeared, Gautama explained that time, among the six substances, has no beginning or end and is reckoned in palyas and sagaras: a round pit one great yojana wide and deep, packed with the finest hair-tips of a newborn lamb of the best Bhogabhumi (land of enjoyment), from which one hair is removed every hundred years, measures a vyavahara palya when empty; countless times that is the uddhara palya and countless times that the addha palya; ten kotakoti (ten million times ten million) palyas make a sagara, ten kotakoti sagaras an avasarpini (descending half-cycle), as many an utsarpini (ascending half-cycle), and the two together, twenty kotakoti sagaras, a kalpa, like the bright and dark halves of a month. The avasarpini's six periods are Sukhama-sukhama of four kotakoti sagaras, Sukhama of three, Sukhama-dukhama of two, Dukhama-sukhama of one kotakoti sagara less 42,000 years, and Dukhama and Dukhama-dukhama of 21,000 years each, with lifespan, strength, stature and knowledge declining through them and rising again in reverse order in the utsarpini.

When an eighth of a palya remained in the third period the fourteen Kulakaras (patriarchs) arose, the fourteenth, Nabhiraja, being the father of the first Tirthankara Rishabhadeva; Ajitanatha came fifty lakh crore sagaras after Rishabha's liberation, and so on down the line, Munisuvrata appearing fifty-four lakh years after Mallinatha, Naminatha six lakh years after him, Neminatha five lakh years later, Parshvanatha 83,750 years later and Vardhamana (Mahavira) 250 years after Parshva. Rishabhadeva was liberated when three years and eight and a half months of the third period remained, and Vardhamana will be liberated when the same span remains of the fourth, after which the fifth period begins.

Gautama foretold that in the fifth period no gods will visit, there will be no monks with riddhis (supernatural powers), no Kevala Jnana (omniscience), no Chakravartis, Baladevas or Narayanas, and no just king like Shrenika; unjust kings and wicked, grasping, faithless people will prevail amid floods, droughts, locusts, parrots, rats and wars, and violent false scriptures will cut down the tree of life like axes. At its start people will stand seven cubits tall and live at most 120 years, at its end two cubits and twenty years, and by the end of the sixth period one cubit and sixteen years, living like beasts, ugly, meat-eating and miserable, with no kin, no king, no wealth and no home.

The Tirthankaras' heights fell from 500 dhanush (bow-lengths) for Rishabha through 450, 400 and so on to 20 dhanush for Munisuvrata, 15 for Nami and 10 for Nemi, then nine cubits for Parshva and seven for Mahavira; their lifespans ran from 84 lakh purvas (a purva being an immense count of years) for Rishabha down through 72, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 2 and 1 lakh purvas, then 84, 72, 60, 30, 10 and 1 lakh years, then 95,000, 84,000 and 55,000 years, 30,000 years for Munisuvrata, and 10,000, 1,000, 100 and, for Mahavira, 72 years. The fourteen Kulakaras stood from 1,800 dhanush for the first down to 525 for the fourteenth, and lived from a tenth of a palya for the first to one crore purvas for Nabhiraja.

Of the twelve Chakravartis (universal emperors), Bharata, son of Rishabhadeva and Queen Nanda, had been Prince Pitha of Pundarikini, a monk under Kushasena who rose to Sarvarthasiddhi; ruling all six divisions of Bharata, he became a monk, gained Kevala Jnana within an antarmuhurta (less than 48 minutes) and reached nirvana. Sagara, once King Vijayateja of Prithvipura, who took diksha (initiation) from the monk Yashodhara and was reborn in the Vijaya anuttara heaven, was born to King Vijaya and Queen Sumangala of Ayodhya, renounced in grief for his sons, became a monk in Ajitanatha's Samavasarana (divine assembly hall) and was liberated, and Maghava, once King Shashiprabha of Pundarikini, a disciple of Vimala Swami who went to the Graiveyaka heavens, was born in Shravasti to King Sumitra and Queen Bhadravati after Dharmanatha's time and, taking the monk's vows, went to the Saudharma heaven.

For Sanatkumara, the fourth, who came after Maghava and before Shantinatha, Gautama traced his earlier lives: in Govardhana village the devout Jinadatta kept the householder's vows and won a good destiny, his faithful wife Vinayavati built a Jina temple in her home with all her wealth and became an aryika, and the believer Hemabahu, worshipping in that temple, became a god named Jaya; after several alternating births he became Dharmaruchi, son of King Suprabha and Queen Tilakasundari of Mahapuri, who became a monk under his father, now the monk Suprabha, rose to the fourth heaven and was then born in Nagapura to King Vinaya and Queen Sahadevi. When Saudharma Indra praised his beauty, gods came secretly and marvelled to see him dusty from wrestling practice, clad only in a bathing cloth, but when he sat adorned on his throne they shook their heads, saying the beauty of a moment ago was already gone; realising that beauty and fortune pass like lightning, he became a monk, gained great riddhis, bore severe disease to shed karma, and after a peaceful death became a god in the third heaven.

Shantinatha, once King Megharatha of Pundarikini, a monk under his father the Tirthankara Ghanaratha who rose to Sarvarthasiddhi, was born in Hastinapura to King Vishvasena and Queen Aira as the sixteenth Tirthankara and fifth Chakravarti, and Kunthunatha and Aranatha were the sixth and seventh Chakravartis and the seventeenth and eighteenth Tirthankaras, all three renouncing their empires and reaching nirvana. Subhauma, the eighth, once King Kanakaprabha of Dhanyapura and a disciple of Vichitragupta, was born in Ayodhya to King Kritavirya and Queen Tara after Aranatha's liberation; Parashurama, who had slain his father, emptied the earth of Kshatriyas seven times and built their heads into pillars, showed the disguised Subhauma a vessel of Kshatriya teeth, which turned into rice pudding while the dish became a chakra (discus) with which Subhauma killed him, and Subhauma, hating Brahmins, emptied the earth of them twenty-one times, then died without vows, steeped in pleasure and cruelty, and went to the seventh hell.

Mahapadma, the ninth, once a king of Vitashoka who became a disciple of Suprabha and rose to the Brahma heaven, was born in Hastinapura to King Padmanatha and Queen Mayuri after Subhauma and, like him, before Mallinatha; when Vidyadharas carried off his eight proud daughters, who did not wish to marry, he rescued them, but all eight became aryikas and won heaven and their abductors also became monks, so he gave the kingdom to his son Padma, took diksha with his son Vishnu and attained liberation. Harishena, the tenth, once King Mahendradatta of Vijaya city, a disciple of the monk Abhinandana who rose to the Mahendra heaven, was born in Kampilanagara to King Hariketu and Queen Vipra, built Jina temples all over Bharata Kshetra and, becoming a monk in Munisuvrata's era, attained Siddhahood.

Jayasena, the eleventh, once King Asikanta of Rajapura and a disciple of Sudharmasagara who went to the Brahma heaven, was born to King Vijaya and Queen Yashovati, took Digambara diksha and was liberated through the three jewels, appearing between Munisuvrata and Naminatha; Brahmadatta, the twelfth, once King Sambhuta of Kashipuri and a disciple of Svatantralinga, was born in Kampilanagara to King Brahmaratha and Queen Chula after Neminatha's liberation and before Parshvanatha, and dying in raudra dhyana (cruel brooding) without the monk's vows, went to the seventh hell. Gautama drew the lesson that palaces, elephants, chariots and fine food are the fruit of merit and huts, rags and bare feet the fruit of sin, and that the ranks of Indra, Chakravarti, Baladeva, Narayana and Prati-narayana come only to bhavya souls (those capable of liberation) as the fruit of dharma and compassion.

The nine Vasudevas (Narayanas) of this age are Triprishtha, Dviprishtha, Svayambhu, Purushottama, Purushasimha, Pundarika, Datta, Lakshmana and Krishna; in earlier births all were ugly, ill-fated or deposed, became monks and did great austerities, but because they made nidana (a wish for worldly reward from their penance) they were reborn as gods and then as Vasudevas, younger brothers of the Baladevas, which is why the wise must never make nidana. The eighth, Lakshmana, had been Punarvasu of Kaushambi, came down from the Mahashukra heaven and was born in Ayodhya to Dasharatha and Sumitra, with Prabhavati named as his chief queen, while the ninth, Krishna, was born in Mathura to Vasudeva and Devaki and had Rukmini as chief queen.

The nine Baladevas, whose fathers are the same as the Narayanas', are Achala, Vijaya, Bhadra, Suprabha, Sudarshana, Nandimitra (Ananda), Nandishena (Nandana), Ramachandra and, ninth, one here called Padma; three came from the anuttara heavens, three from Sahasrara, two from the Brahma heaven and one from Mahashukra. The eighth, Ramachandra, had been Shrichandra of the city of Kshema in his earlier birth, was born to Kaushalya (Aparajita), and took diksha from the monk Suvrata; eight Baladevas destroyed all eight karmas and were liberated, while the ninth, Padma, became a god of great powers in the Brahma heaven.

Of the nine Baladeva-Narayana pairs, five arose between the times of Shreyamsanatha and Dharmanatha, the sixth and seventh between Aranatha and Mallinatha, the eighth after Munisuvrata's liberation and before Naminatha, and the ninth were cousins of Neminatha, sons of his father's brother. Their foes, the nine Prati-narayanas, were Ashvagriva, Taraka, Meraka, Madhukaitabha, Nishumbha, Bali, Prahlada, Ravana and Jarasandha, ruling from Alaka, Vijayapura, Nandanapura, Prithvipura, Haripura, Suryapura, Simhapura, Lanka and Rajagriha; of all sixty-three, some have attained liberation through austerity, some went to heaven and will return to be liberated, and those Chakravartis, Narayanas and Prati-narayanas who never renounced will practise austerity and reach liberation after a few more births.