The Lineage of Shri Ramachandra

Gautama begins the story of the eighth Baladeva with the origin of the royal lines: after the tenth Tirthankara Shitalanatha's liberation, King Sumukha of Kaushambi in his ignorance kept in his palace Vanamala, wife of the merchant Viraka; later, turning wise, he gave alms to monks and on death was reborn as a Vidyadhara, and Vanamala as a Vidyadhari, whom he married. While the two sported in Harikshetra (the Hari region), Viraka, who in the fire of separation had practised austerity and become a god in heaven, recognised his enemy by avadhi jnana (clairvoyance) and in anger carried the couple away; through this link with the Hari region the man came to be known as Hari and his descendants as the Harivamsha.

Hari's son was Mahagiri, followed by Himagiri, Vasugiri, Indragiri, Ratnamala, Sambhu, Bhutadeva and hundreds of other kings, and in this line arose the world-famous King Sumitra of Kushagranagara and his queen Padmavati, who enjoyed pleasures like Indra. In the last watch of one night Padmavati saw sixteen dreams (an elephant, a bull, a lion, Lakshmi being bathed, two garlands, the moon, the sun, two fish at play in water, full water-pots, a lake with lotuses, the ocean, a jewelled throne, a heavenly vimana, the palace of Dharanendra, a heap of jewels and a smokeless fire), and in the morning King Sumitra explained their meaning to her.

From the sky fell a rain of jewels, three and a half crore at a time, three times a day, for fifteen months in the parents' courtyard, the eight Kumari goddesses with their retinues served the mother, and at the child's birth Indra with the Lokapalas bathed him on Mount Sumeru with water of the Milk Ocean, worshipped him and returned him to his mother's lap. Because people took the anuvratas (minor vows) and mahavratas (great vows), and his mother too took vows, from the time he was conceived, he became famous as Munisuvrata; dark as Mount Anjanagiri, he outshone the sun with his brilliance and the moon with his radiance, while gods brought him every enjoyment from heaven, Kinnara goddesses and apsaras danced and Indra himself stood ever ready to serve.

Munisuvrata married in youth and ruled for some years, until the sight of clouds dissolving turned him from the world; the Laukantika gods came to praise his resolve, and giving the kingdom to his son Suvrata he rode a divine palanquin to the Vipula garden and took diksha (initiation) with many kings, vowing to break his fast only after two days, his first meal being offered at Rajagriha by Vrishabhadatta. After some months of austerity he attained Kevala Jnana (omniscience) under a champaka tree through shukla dhyana (pure meditation), preached the dharma of monks and householders, so that some became monks, some householders, animals took vows and many gods gained right faith, wandered with many monks, and attained liberation on Sammeda Shikhara from the Nirjara peak.

Munisuvrata's son King Suvrata ruled long, then gave the kingdom to his son Daksha, took diksha and became a Siddha; Daksha's son was Ailavardhana, after whom came in order Shrivardhana, Shrivriksha, Sanjayanta, Kunima, Maharatha, Puloma and many more kings of the Harivamsha, some liberated and some reborn in heaven. In this lineage King Vasavaketu, lord of Mithila, and his chief queen Vipula had a son, Janaka, skilled in every policy, who cared for his people as a father for his son; thus, Gautama says, Janaka is of the Harivamsha.

Turning to the origin of Dasharatha's line, Gautama recalls that in the Ikshvaku vamsha Rishabhadeva and his son Bharata both attained nirvana, and that in the long ages from Rishabha to Munisuvrata countless kings of this line were liberated through severe austerity or became Ahamindras, Indras or gods, while only a few went to hell. He reflects that ignorant souls turn on the wheel of rebirth, where sorrow is as large as Mount Meru and happiness as small as a mustard seed, and that only those who give, practise austerity, worship and praise the Jina, discuss scripture, honour the wise and show friendship to all beings reach the highest state.

After Mallinatha's liberation, in the interval before Munisuvrata, the heroic King Vijaya ruled Ayodhya in Bharata Kshetra with his chief queen Hemachulini; their son Surendramanyu and his queen Kirtisama had two sons, Vajrabahu and Purandara, who lived happily like two suns on earth. Vajrabahu married Manodaya, the beautiful daughter of King Indravahana and Queen Chudamani of Hastinapura, and when her brother Udayasundara came to fetch her home, Vajrabahu, deeply attached to his bride, went along with them to his in-laws.

On Mount Vasantagiri, admiring its fragrant groves, Vajrabahu saw a monk standing in kayotsarga (motionless meditation), so still that deer scratched themselves against him as against a stump, arms hanging, facing the sun, gaze fixed on the tip of his nose, wasted by austerity yet radiant. Reflecting that this monk had won the true fruit of human birth while he himself was bound by karma like a sandal tree wrapped in snakes and asleep on the peak of pleasure, sure to fall, he resolved to become a monk, and his gaze stayed fixed on the sage as if tied to a pillar.

His brother-in-law Udayasundara laughed, ‘Will you too take Digambara diksha?’ and when Vajrabahu said he had voiced his very thought, joked that if he did so he would join him, though Vajrabahu would soon regret it; Vajrabahu said ‘So be it,’ cast off his wedding ornaments and dismounted from his elephant. To the weeping Manodaya and Udayasundara he said gently that birth and death turn like a water-wheel, life is as fleeting as lightning, and even medicine taken in jest cures disease, so no friend could have helped him more; then he took diksha from the monk Gunasagara, plucking out his hair with his own hands, twenty-six princes including Udayasundara became monks with him, and Manodaya put on a white sari and took the vows of an aryika (nun).

Hearing this in his assembly, the aged King Vijaya lamented that his grandson had spurned the senses as poison in boyhood while he, his sapphire-black hair now white, still clung to them; begging everyone's forgiveness, he gave the kingdom to his younger grandson Purandara and, with his son Surendramanyu, took diksha from the monk Nirvanaghosha. Purandara and Queen Prithvimati had a son, Kirtidhara, famed for his virtues and humility, whom Purandara married to the daughter of King Kaushala before handing him the kingdom and taking the monk's vows under Kshemankara Muni.

Seeing the sun darkened by Rahu's vimana in an eclipse, Kirtidhara realised that all worldly states are fleeting and resolved to become a monk, but his ministers set a precious vaidurya gem amid a heap of charcoal, which glowed only while the gem lay there, to show that the kingdom would be lustreless without him, and begged him to crown a son first as his father had, so he vowed to take the monk's vows on the very day he heard of a son's birth. When Queen Sahadevi bore a son she hid the birth for fear of his renunciation, but a poor man told the king for reward; Kirtidhara gave him all his ornaments, crown included, and the rich city of Ghoshashakha with a hundred villages, anointed the fifteen-day-old baby as king in his mother's lap, naming him Sukaushala because Ayodhya is also called Kaushala, and left the prison of household life to become a monk in the forest.