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LECTURE XXIII.
119
After practising severe austerities both of them became Kêvalins, and having completely annihilated their Karman, they reached the highest perfection. (48)
Thus act the enlightened, the wise, the clever ones; they turn from pleasures as did this best of men? (49)
Thus I say.
TWENTY-THIRD LECTURE 2.
KÊSI AND GAUTAMA. There was a Gina, Pârsva3 by name, an Arhat, worshipped by the people, who was thoroughly enlightened and omniscient, a prophet of the Law, and a Gina. (1)
And there was a famous disciple of this Light of
i Compare the last verse of the Ninth Lecture.
? In this lecture we have a very interesting legend about the way in which the union of the old church of Pârsva and the new church of Mahâvîra was brought about. A revival of this ancient difference seems to have caused the united church afterwards to divide again into the present Svêtâmbara and Digambara sects. They do not continue the two primitive churches, but seem to have grown out of the united church.
Pârsva is the last but one Tîrthakara, his Nirvana took place 250 years before that of Mahâvîra. This statement, which has been generally accepted, is, however, in seeming contradiction to the account of our text, according to which a disciple of Pârsva, who is called a young monk kumâra-sramana, met Gautama, i.e. Sudharman, the disciple of Mahâvîra. We therefore must take the word disciple, sise, as paramparâsishya, that is not in its literal sense. See note 3, p. 122.
