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Trishashti Shalaka Purusha Caritra

by Helen M. Johnson | 1931 | 742,503 words

This page describes Description of the province Vatsa which is the second part of chapter I of the English translation of the Ajitanatha-caritra, contained within the “Trishashti Shalaka Purusha Caritra�: a massive Jain narrative relgious text composed by Hemacandra in the 12th century. Ajitanatha in jainism is the second Tirthankara (Jina) and one of the 63 illustrious beings or worthy persons.

Go directly to: Footnotes.

Part 2: Description of the province Vatsa

Situated in the middle part of ´³²¹³¾²úÅ«»å±¹Ä«±è²¹, like the navel of the continents, is Videhaká¹£etra provided with sorrow-bliss.[1] In it, on the north bank of the river ³§Ä«³ÙÄå there is a province named Vatsa possessing extensive wealth. Endowed with wonderful beauty, it looked like a piece of heaven that had fallen to earth. With villages upon villages and cities upon cities populating it, there was empty space only in the sky, if at all. There was a distinction between cities and villages if made by the king’s authority, but they could not be distinguished from each other on the basis of wealth.

At every step there were large tanks with clear, sweet water, just as if filled by canals coming out of the Ocean of Milk. Here and there were large, clear pools whose centers, like the minds of the noble, could not be reached. At every step gardens with abundant green creepers gave the impression of variegated body-decoration of the earth-goddess. In every village there were sugarcane plantations which relieved the thirst of travelers, gleaming with large sugar-canes that resembled pitchers of water in the form of juice. At every cow-house the cows flooded the earth, like living rivers of milk, with falling cascades of milk. On every road the fruit trees with pairs of travelers seated by them looked like the wishing-trees of the Kurus with the twins.[2]

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

Videhaká¹£etra does not have the six divisions of time (see I, pp. 93 ff), but it is always duḥṣamasuá¹£amÄ there. TattvÄrthÄdhigamasÅ«tra, com. to 4. 15.

[2]:

See I, pp. 29 f.

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