Religious Quest of India

SR No.: 011031
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: J N Farquhar, Griswold
Publisher: J N Farquhar Griswold
Total Pages: 365
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 95

JAINA COMMUNITY
69
actually taken a vow of perpetual celibacy !) offered no resistance to his father and eight would-be fathers-in-law, but married all the eight ladies. After the eight-fold marriage Jambû returned to his father's house, which that very night was attacked by Prabhava, the bandit son of Vindhya, king of Jaipur. The doughty robber had taken the precaution to weave a spell (for he was not only a prince and a robber but also a magician), which ought to have caused all the inhabitants of the merchant's house to fall into a deep sleep; but this aristocratic spell had no effect on Jambū. When Prabhava askcd the reason, Jambū explained that, as he was going to enter a spiritual career the next morning, spells had no power over him; Prabhava tried to dissuade him, and apparently their discussion aroused the eight wives of the celibate, for they joined their entreaties with his. Jambū told them many moral tales showing the superior virtues of celibacy; the ladies replied with other stories upholding the honour of the married state, but the palm lay with Jambū, for not only was he, with his parents' consent, initiated next morning by Sudharma, but in a few days Prabhava, the robber, also followed his example and renounced not only his habit of acquiring other people's property, but also his own possessions.
Jambū attained mokṣa according to Jaina authorities Prain 403 B.C., and was succeeded by Prabhava, the erstwhile bhava. prince, robber and magician. It was no longer possible for any one to attain mokşa, so Prabhava (who died 397 B.C.) was not immediately released from the cycle of rebirth; yet so famous a saint must eventually attain mokşa, though he would first have to pass through one, three, five, or at most fifteen, rebirths.
It was during this time that the two sects of Osavāla Jaina and Śrīmāla Jaina arose. It is also said that it was now that the image of Mahāvira was enshrined at Upakeśa Păţtana. This is probably a reference to the first introduction of idol worship into Jainism.