Part 5: Pārśva’s childhood

At dawn Aśvasena held his son’s birth-festival accompanied by releases from prison, et cetera. While he was still in the womb, his mother saw a serpent creeping at her side on a dark night and at once told her husband. Recalling that and deciding, “That was the power of the embryo,” King Aśvasena gave his son the name Pārśva. The Lord of the World, cherished by nurses appointed by Indra, grew up in course of time, going from lap to lap of the kings. Nine cubits tall, he gradually reached youth, a pleasure-grove of Love, a charm for (attracting) women. From the blue color of his body Pārśva looked as if made from the essence of blue lotuses, or rather, of the Śrīs of blue lotuses. Long-armed, the Lord looked like a tree with long branches; and having a broad, firm chest, he looked like an immovable mountain. From his hands, feet, face and eyes, Aśvasena’s son had the beautiful appearance of a pool with a bed of blooming lotuses. Marked with the thunderbolt, et cetera, slender-waisted, flat-bellied, the Lord had mortise, collar, and pin joints.^[1] After seeing the Lord with such beauty, goddesses reflected, “They are blessed on earth, whose husband he will be.”