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DIGEST OF BHĀVADEVASŪRI'S PĀRÇVANĀTHA
CARITRA
SARGA THE FIRST
Invocation of Arhats and Divinities
Author's proemium in praise (mañgala) of the Jaina Arhats, Nabheya, Çantinātha, Nemi, Pārçvanātha, and the collective Jinendras that liberally bestow holy knowledge.1 Adoration of Vagdevi (Sarasvati), the Moon, and other divine personifications, closing with a statement of the purpose of the book, namely the history (carita) in eight chapters (sarga), describing the ten existences (pre-births and birth) of the holy Jina, Lord Parçva, whose superlative qualities are praised beforehand in ecstatic language (1-16).
Frame Story: The brothers Kamatha and Marubhuti
There
Flowery description of the city of Potana. ruled magnificently King Aravinda with his Queen Dharaņi, endowed with every womanly virtue (25). He had a wise Purohita, Vięvabhūti, whose virtuous wife Anuddhara bore him two sons, Kamatha and Marubhūti. Kamatha's wife was Varuņa; Marubhuti's, Vasumdhara.
1 Analogous to the stotras, stavas, or stutis which play a more important role in Jaina religion than in Buddhism, or even Brahmanical sectarianism; see as specimens the Cobhanastutayah of Cobhanamuni (Jacobi in ZDMG. xxxii. 509 ff.); or the Bhaktamarastotra, and the Kalyāṇamandirastotra (the same author in Indische Studien, xiv. 359 ff.) Cf. Guerinot, Essai de Bibliographie Jaina (Annales du Musée Guimet, vol. xxii), pp. 203 ff.
'Combination of chaplain and chancellor.
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