Excerpts from Trisastisalakapurusacarita (Translation) by Helen M Johnson
Summary
Excerpts from Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacarita (Helen M. Johnson, tr.):- - Setting: In spring, the “Master of the World” visits a flower-bower where townspeople celebrate with swings, flower-gathering, and playful games (pp. 1–2). - Turning point: Observing this, the Lord (via clairvoyant knowledge) recognizes the limits of sensual pleasures—even those of the highest heavens (including Anuttara)—and reflects on how passions (anger, pride, deceit, greed) keep beings in saṃsāra (pp. 2–3). - Divine request: The Lokāntika gods—listed as Sarasvatas, Adityas, Vahnis, Aruṇas, Gardatoyas, Tuṣitas, Avyābādhas, Maruts, and Rigtas—arrive from the end of Brahmmaloka and petition him to establish a dharmatīrtha (p. 3). - Resolve: After their request, the Master leaves the garden Nandana for his palace, intent on becoming a wandering mendicant (p. 3). - Source note: The excerpt is reprinted from Johnson’s 1931 translation, Vol. I, Baroda, pp. 156–160 (p. 3). Pariśiṣṭaparvan (Hemacandra):- - Identity & scope: Also called Sthavirāvalīcarita (“Lives of the Jaina Patriarchs”); an appendix/continuation to Hemacandra’s Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacarita. It comprises 13 cantos and about 3,500 ślokas (p. 4). - Content: A legendary, chronological history of the patriarchs from Jambu to Vajrasena (p. 4). - Literary context: Many works treat the sixty-three śalākāpuruṣas up to Mahāvīra’s nirvāṇa, but only two continue beyond: (1) Hemacandra’s Pariśiṣṭaparvan and (2) Bhadreśvara’s Kathāvalī (Prakrit prose). Though earlier and extending further, Bhadreśvara’s work is judged to have “few literary merits,” while Hemacandra’s is praised for fluent Sanskrit kāvya style (p. 4).
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Conclusion
Amid a spring festival in a flower-bower, the Lord—through clairvoyant knowledge—recognizes the futility of sensual pleasures and the four passions that bind beings in saṃsāra; at the petition of the ninefold Lokāntika gods to establish a dharmatīrtha, he departs from Nandana to his palace, intending to become a wandering mendicant. Hemacandra’s Pariśiṣṭaparvan—a 13-canto, ~3,500-śloka Sanskrit kāvya appendix to the Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacarita—extends the chronicle from Jambu to Vajrasena and, unlike Bhadreśvara’s earlier Prakrit Kathāvalī (judged to have few literary merits), is praised for its fluent style.