Part 4: Ara’s birth

Now Dhanapati’s soul in Graiveyaka, immersed in pure bliss, completed its life. It fell on the second day of the bright half of Phālguna, the moon being in Revatī, and descended into the womb of the chief-queen Devī. The queen, comfortably asleep, in the last part of the night saw the fourteen great dreams indicating the birth of a Tīrthakṛt. The embryo, possessing three kinds of knowledge, grew secretly, not causing her any pain, increasing the beauty of her body. On the tenth day of the bright half of Mārga in Revatī, she bore a son, the color of gold, marked with a nandyāvarta, with all the marks. The fifty-six Dikkumārīs performed the birth-rites and the sixty-four Vāsavas gave the bath on Meru.

After he had anointed him, made a pūjā, waved the light, et cetera, the Indra of Saudharma began to praise the Master.

Stuti:

“Reverence to you, the eighteenth Arhat of whom the eighteen faults^[1] are destroyed, to be meditated upon by those having the eighteen kinds of chastity,^[2] Lord. Just as the three kinds of knowledge were at home in you from the womb, so were all of these three worlds, Tīrthanātha. The world has been overpowered for a long time by the robbers—love, hate, et cetera, who gave a sleeping-charm of delusion. Now rescue it, Master. Like a chariot on the road by the weary, like a river by sufferers from thirst, like the shade of a tree by persons burned by the sun, like a raft by drowning persons, like a cure by the sick, like a light by those blind from darkness, like the sun by sufferers from cold, like a guide by persons lost on the road, like a fire by persons afraid of tigers, you have been found now as a lord by us bereaved of a lord for a long time, Tīrthanātha. Obtaining you as a lord, gods, asuras, and men come from their respective places joyfully as at the new moon. Lord, I do not ask anything else from you, but I ask this: May you always be my lord in birth after birth.”