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Life of Pārçvanātha
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181
Frame Story: Life of Pārçvanatha, concluded. His
nirvāņa
Lord Pārçva, knowing that nirvāṇa was at hand, went to the Sammeta mountain 29 (363). In the company of 33 Munis he practised a month's asceticism (368). He attained to various forms of spiritual refinement, to the point when his karma was destroyed (kşīņakarmā), died, and reached the summit of heaven (lokāgram āsadat). Çakra bathed the body in the fluid of the ocean of milk' (kşīrāmbhodhijalāiḥ), and adorned it with divine ornaments (378). The gods placed his body upon a pyre of sandal and aloe wood, and threw fragrant substances upon it (383). Cloud youths (meghakumārakāḥ) quenched (vyadhyāpayan) the pyre (385). Over the bones of the Lord the gods erected a jeweled stūpa, and then dispersed to their several homes (358-393).
Henceforth known as the mountain of Pårçvanātha (Pårçvanāthaçikhara); see Indian Antiquary ii. 354. According to Wilson, Asiatic Researches xvii, p. 276, there is a temple of Pårçvanátha on Mount Sameta Sikhar or Parasnāth in Pachete, on the frontier of Ramgarh, described in
Description of the Temple of Parçvanatha at Samet Sikhar,' by Lieut-Col. William Franklin, in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, i. 507 fi. See also Colebrooke's Essays," vol. ii, p. 191, note 3.
