Tirthankara

“ There in that tirtha, O hero, one should reside for a month, with subdued senses and regulated diet. By this, O king, one ascendeth to the region of Brahma, and delivereth also his race. Arriving next at Medhavika, one should offer oblations of water to the gods and the Pitris. By this, one acquires the merit of the Agnishtoma sacrifice, and also memory and intellect. There in that tirtha is the mountain known over the whole world and called Kalanjara. Bathing in the celestial lake that is there, one acquires the merit of giving away a thousand kine. ”

“ The king then entrusted his government to another minister of his, and pursued his old habits. After wandering through various countries, Tirthadarsi reached a port, contracted friendship with a merchant there, and remained always with him. One day the merchant informed him that he was about to set sail to an island afar off, and asked him to look after his affairs till he returned. The minister, thereupon, said that he would accompany the merchant, as he could not endure the pangs of separation. They both went on board the vessel, and saw a very beautiful woman on an island. ”

“ Bathing in the Saraswati during a solar eclipse, one obtaineth the merit of a hundred horse-sacrifices, and any sacrifice that one may perform there produceth merit that is eternal. Whatever tirthas exist on earth or in the firmament, all the rivers, lakes, smaller lakes, springs, tanks, large and small, and spots sacred to particular gods, without doubt, all come, O tiger among men, month after month, and mingle with Sannihati, O king of men! And it is because that all other tirthas are united together here, that this tirtha is so called. ”

“ But if holy people live in a certain place, and if there is no temple there, even that is a Tirtha. If unholy people live in a place where there may be a hundred temples, the Tirtha has vanished from that place. And it is most difficult to live in a Tirtha; for if sin is committed in any ordinary place it can easily be removed, but sin committed in a Tirtha cannot be removed. This is the gist of all worship — to be pure and to do good to others. He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva ”

“ Bathing in the Narmada as also in the tirtha known by the name of Surparaka, observing a fast for a full fortnight, one is sure to become in one's next birth a prince of the royal line. If one proceeds with restrained senses and a concentrated soul to the tirtha known under the name of Jamvumarga, one is sure to attain to success in course of a single day and night. By repairing to Chandalikasrama and bathing in the tirtha called Kokamukha, having subsisted for some time on potherbs alone and worn rags for vestments, one is sure to obtain ten maidens of great beauty for one's spouses. ”

“ O king, it behoveth thee, O son of Pandu, to take us with thee. Without thee, we shall not be able, O son of the Kuru race, to visit them at any time. Surrounded by dangers and difficult of access, they are infested by beasts of prey. Those tirthas, O lord of men, are inaccessible to persons in small parties. Foremost of all wielders of the bow, thy brothers are ever brave. Protected by your heroic selves, we also would proceed to them. Permit us to acquire, O lord of earth, through thy grace the blessed fruit of tirthas. ”

“ Tirant’s military genius and his prowess were always in evidence. Never was a lance handled more dexterously, nor a battle-ax wielded more vigorously. He was ever in the thick of the fray unless there was some special work for him to do. Senyor Dagramunt, one of the shipwrecked men who had succeeded in rejoining his great Captain, and Scariano, too, performed many feats of valor, and slew almost as many of the enemy as Tirant. The Moorish kings could not understand how the Christians, so few in numbers compared with their own, could withstand them. ”

“ It cannot be supposed that the Tirthakārs simply represent the deified anthropomorphic emanations from these animals, because the object of Vardhamāna’s preaching was perhaps like that of Buddha to do away with the promiscuous polytheism of the Hindu religion. But nevertheless the association of the sacred animals and trees with the Tirthakārs furnished a strong connecting link between them and the Hindu gods, and considerably lessens the opposition between the two systems of worship. The god Indra is also frequently found sculptured as an attendant guardian in the Jain temples. ”

“ Their Tîrthakaras, Tìrthamkaras, or perfected saints, are usually known as twenty-four belonging to the present age. But the mythology takes account also of a past and a future age or renovation of the world, and to each of these aeons are assigned twenty-four Tîrthakaras. But this is not all: in their cosmogony they lay down other continents besides Jambûdvîpa-Bharata or that which we dwell in. These are separated from Jambûdvîpa by impassable seas, but exactly like it in every respect and are called Dhâtuki-kanda and Pushkarârddha ”

“ Tirant’s wonderful sense of organization and his ability to cope with any and all difficulties were not long in revealing themselves. His army arrived at the city of Pelidas, which was only a league and a half from the camp of the Turks who were besieging the city in which the forces of the Duke of Macedonia had sought refuge. The sultan and the Grand Turk, who were in command of the troops of the enemy, knew that a Greek army had entered Pelidas, but they were little concerned, for of the ten parts of the emperor’s dominion they already held nine and one-half parts. ”

“ Before this, O son of the Kuru race, I have twice visited the tirthas. With thee I shall repair to them for the third time. O Yudhishthira, Manu and other royal Rishis of meritorious deeds had undertaken journeys to tirthas. Indeed, a trip to them is capable of dispelling all fear, O king! They that are crooked-minded, they that have not their souls under control, they that are illiterate and perverse, do not, O Kauravya, bathe in tirthas. But thou art ever of a virtuous disposition and conversant with morality and firm in thy promises. ”

“ Mithra gives swift horses to those who do not deceive him; to the habitation in which he is satisfied he gives troops of cattle and men. The fire of Auramazda gives the straightest path to those who do not deceive Mithra. But if the lord of the house, the village, the canton, the land deceives him, then Mithra in anger destroys house and village, canton and land. Not all evil deeds, not all deception, are seen by Mithra, saith the wicked man. But Mithra sees all that is between heaven and earth. With ten thousand eyes he beholds the man who hates and deceives him. ”

“ Tirant’s ambition now was to conquer all Barbary. In order that the conquest might be accomplished as rapidly as possible, Senyor Dagramunt set out with an army to capture the cities, towns, and castles on the other side of the mountains. The expedition met with no serious opposition until it came to a city named Montagata, which belonged to the daughter of a Moorish king who had been slain in battle. When the inhabitants of this place learned that the Christian army was near, they sent the keys of the city to Senyor Dagramunt. ”

“ Your Majesty sees that Tirant's life is near its end, all the doctors have given up hope, and I am the only one who can help him. Call the soldiers together, and have them start shouting and go into his chambers and beat their swords against their shields. When he wakes up and sees so many armed men and hears them shouting, and he asks what is happening, you can tell him the Turks are at the gates of the city. Then all those thoughts of his will disappear, and with that virtue he has and out of fear of being shamed, he will get up. ”

“ The troops of the sultan and the Grand Turk were on the shore ready to attack the Christians if these should attempt to land, so Tirant took his whole fleet, together with the captured vessels, out to sea, and when darkness fell he turned about, came back, and landed at a very advantageous point only four leagues distant from the Moorish army. The next day the Moors saw themselves surrounded by an army vastly superior to their own in numbers. ”

“ Each tirtha is famous for some event in the history of the gods or the saints of the lands, and the water of each one has a virtue of its own. A dip in one cleanses the bather from all his sins, a dip in another confers upon him the merit of having bestowed a thousand kine upon the Brahmans, or, perhaps, that of having performed a horse-sacrifice. ”

“ Tirumala then had the slave-governor assassinated. Rama Rajah at once returned to the capital, but was unable at that juncture to assert his authority. Finding himself deserted by many of the nobles he concluded a treaty with his lawful sovereign, and retired to his own province, which by agreement he was allowed to retain as his own independent state. Tirumala shortly afterwards strangled the king and seized the throne. The nobles submitted, since he was of royal blood, and better, in their opinion, than Rama Rajah ”

“ With libations we offer sacrifice to Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, who speaketh true things, the wise one, comely in shape, of a thousand ears and ten thousand eyes, standing on a broad tower, strong, sleepless, and watchful, who mounts above Hara berezaiti before the immortal sun, the guider of horses—he who first in a form of gold ascends the beautiful summits. For him the creator Auramazda has prepared a dwelling above Hara berezaiti, where is neither night, nor darkness, nor winds chilling nor scorching, nor the corruption of the slain ”

“ Mahādev.—A synonym of Daira Muhammadan.
Mahankudo.—A title of Gaudo and Gudiya. The headman of the latter caste goes by this name.
Mahant.—The Mahant is the secular head and trustee of the temple at Tirumala (Upper Tirupati) in the North Arcot district, and looks after the worldly affairs of the swāmi (god) . “Tirupati,” Mr. H. A. Stuart writes,20 “unlike most other temples, has no dancing-girls attached to it, and not to be strictly continent upon the sacred hill is a deadly sin. ”

“ The King of Egypt accordingly challenged Tirant to mortal combat. In the challenge this king stated that he had made a vow to his lady-love that he would engage in a combat à outrance with a king or a king’s son, or with the best captain of the Christian army, and that it was his intention to send her the head of Tirant to show that his vow had been accomplished. He also suggested that each one of them should champion the cause of a lady, and then the combat should also determine which one of these ladies excelled in beauty, dignity, virtue, lineage, grace, and wisdom. ”

“ Extricate me, and I make this promise, that if I cannot prepare the Indigo from want of ploughs and kine, I will annually give the Saheb Co.’s Rs. 100 in the place of that. Am I a person to tutor the ryots? Do I meet them?
Defendant’s Attorney. Honored Sir, of the four ryots who came as witnesses, one is of the Tikiri caste; he has no knowledge of what a plough is; he has no lands and no rents to pay; has no kine and no cow-house; and this can be best known by proper examination. Kanai Torofdar is a ryot of a different village; and as to our Babu he has no acquaintance with him. ”

“ Aye, sahib, and this Mahatma, they say, is a very holy fellow, who works miracles. Sometimes he sits under a tree by the burning ghat, but at night he goes to the temple of the Tirthankers, where none dare follow him, although they sit in crowds outside to watch him enter and leave. The common rumor is that at night he leaves his body lifeless in a crypt in that Tirthanker temple and flies to heaven, where he fortifies himself with fresh magic. ”

“ A daughter of an illiterate rustic like Khetromany, an elderly village woman like Aduri, a ryot like Torapa, a village elder like Rajib, country boys like Nashiram and Rata; and then again a 'cultured drunkard' of the city like Nimchand, a city-roving country gentleman like Atal, a city vampire like Kanchan, spoilt children like Naderchand and Hemchand who are partly of the town and partly of the village, a deputy like Ghatiram, the Dewan of the Nilkuthi, Amins, Oriya bearers, Dule bearers, and Kaorani, the mother of Pencho—Dinabandhu knew all about them, even their innermost secrets. ”

“ At Tiruvannamalai, Trichinopoly, Tiruttani, Mayilam, and other places where the temples are situated on hills, the whole rock on which the pagoda stands is illuminated and the sight is rendered as grand as temple funds will admit. The view at Tiruvannamalai on the Krittika feast night is supposed to be the grandest in Southern India. ”

“ The silent suffering country wanted a man who could speak out without mincing matters, one who could boldly stand up for cur birth-right held in pawn by the rulers of the land. Where could such an one be found except in the great Mahratta race?
Bal Gangadar Tilak was born at Ratnagiri on July 23rd, 1856. Born in a race to which the Peshwas belonged and in a town not far away from the birth-place of Balaji Vishwanath, he was, indeed, destined to play the role of a representative of those who had ruled the greater part of India for nearly a hundred years. ”

“ From inside the house the wife of the old pandit was screaming: "The old man is rapidly losing his wits: he does nothing, all day and all night but mind his books: he never once turns his attention to household matters." His pupils, hearing all this, nudged each other and winked. Tarka Siddhanta flew into a towering rage, and taking hold of a stick, with which to keep the old women quiet, was just getting up very slowly and deliberately, when suddenly Mangovinda caught hold of him, and said: "Oh, Tarka Siddhanta, respected sir! we are all going into trade. ”