Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/80

 ascetics to join his community or saṇgha, who eventually all attained mokṣa with him. His emblem is the horse.

The fourth Tīrthaṅkara owes his name to the fact that the god Indra used to come down and worship (abhinanda) him in Vanitā, where his parents, Saṁvara and Siddārtha Rāṇī, ruled. He attained mokṣa accompanied by a thousand monks, as indeed did all the first eleven Tīrthaṅkara except Supārśvanātha. Abhinandana has the ape for his sign; he was born ten lakhs of crores of sāgara of time after his predecessor. His height was three hundred and fifty bow-shots.

The legend about the fifth Tīrthaṅkara, Sumatinātha, is more interesting; he was born in Kaṅkaṇapura, where his father, a Rajput named Megharatha, was king; his mother's name was Sumaṅgaḷā. The child was called Sumatinātha, because even before his birth his mother's intellect (sumati) was so sharpened. To prove the queen's ability, a story is told resembling that of the judgement of Solomon. An old Brahman died, leaving two wives; both women claimed the only son as theirs, and the dispute was taken to the queen to settle, who decreed, as Solomon did (and with similar results), that the living child should be cut in two. This Tīrthaṅkara's sign is sometimes given as a red goose, but others say it is a red partridge. He was born nine lakhs of crores of sāgara after Abhinandana, and his height was three hundred bow-shots.

Susīmā, the mother of the sixth Tīrthaṅkara, longed before his birth to sleep on a bed of red lotuses (padma), with the result that her son was always the colour of a red lotus, which flower he took for his emblem. His father, Dhara, was the Rajput king of Kauśāmbī. Padmaprabhu was born ninety thousand crores of sāgara of time after his predecessor; his height was two hundred and fifty bow-shots.

The father of the next Tīrthaṅkara was the Rajput king of Benares; but his wife suffered from leprosy in both her sides. This dreadful disease was cured before the