Parshvanatha

Parshvanatha (Pārśvanātha), also known as Parshva and Parasnath, was the 23rd of 24 Tirthankaras (ford-makers or propagators of dharma) of Jainism. He is the only Tirthankara who gained the title of Kalīkālkalpataru (Kalpavriksha in this Kali Yuga).

Quotes

• Worshipping the Lord of the Jinas, Parsvanitha, who resides in the temple of the city Harikankhi, I now give briefly an account of that very image, which has destroyed the pride of this Evil Age in its ability to do evil.
  There is a village called Harikaikhi in the land of Gujarat. In that village there is a magical image of the Lord Pargvanatha that is housed in a Jain temple bearing a lofty spire. The image is always worshipped by the faithful, three times a day, with various types of ceremonies. Now there was a time in the past, when that lamp of the Calukya dynasty, King Bhimadeva, reigned, when a Muslim chieftain named Atanubukka came with his army from the country of the Turukkas and destroyed the ramparts of the capital city of Anahilavadaya. In his rampages he came upon the temple of Pargvanatha that I just mentioned, in the village of Harikankhi. His army forced its way into the temple and broke the image of Pargvanatha. The chieftain chased all the villagers from their homes and then went back whence he had come. The villagers returned. The Jains gathered. When they saw the image of the Lord lying there broken they all began to talk at once, ‘Oh no! Can it be that even the Lord, with all his wondrous powers, has been destroyed by the barbarians? Where are his powers now”. But then, while they were all fast asleep, the Gods whose task it is to guard the images of the Tirthamkaras, came to them and instructed them, ‘Gather together all the pieces of this image and put them in the innermost chamber of the temple. Shut the door tight and lock it. Wait a full six months. At the end of that period of time, open the door and you will see that the image will be in perfect condition, intact, with all of its limbs’. (...)
  And when the sixth month was over, they opened the door and they saw the image of the Lord Paréva, intact, all its limbs unharmed. There were just a few spots on the nails and on the thumbs. The Jain community was delighted. They began to worship the image again, just as they had always done before. Jains, monks, nuns, and lay followers alike, came from all éver. They held a big festival in which they carried the image on a processional car. The Glorious Lord Pargvanatha, who possesses so many marvelous qualities, does so many astonishing feats. This was only one of them.
  • The Vividhatirthakalpa, quoted in Tales of Broken Limbs and Bleeding Wounds: Responses to Muslim Iconoclasm in Medieval India by Phyllis Granoff

• Long ago in the city Avajjha lived the son of Dasaratha, whose name was Pauma. He was the eighth of the Baladevas and was an extremely pious Jain. Now this Pauma had for a long time been worshipping a jewelled image of the future Lord of the Jinas, the Glorious Parsvanatha, in his own private temple. That image removed for him all obstacles to success and happiness, and had proved its miraculous powers on many an occasion and in such a way that no one doubted their existence. In time Pauma came to know that in this age of declining virtue the True Faith would soon suffer tremendous reversals in the East of the country. As the saying goes, nothing can endure forever in all its perfection; even the mine of rubies one day must cease to yield good stones. He therefore had the superintending deities of the image transport it through the sky to the city Suddhadanti, in the country of Sattasaya. There they hid the image in an underground chamber. And knowing that the times were bad, the superintending deities changed its substance from precious jewels into ordinary stone. After much time had passed, there appeared in the monastic lineage Sodhativala a teacher by the name of Vimalasiri. He received the following instructions in a dream, ‘In an underground chamber at such and such a location there is an image of the Glorious Parvanatha. Dig it up and worship it’. The monk then told this to his lay disciples. Together they brought the image out of the underground chamber. They made a temple for it and installed the image in that temple. They began to worship it three times a day. But the times were such that the city was abandoned and the superintending deities became lax in their duties, and so it could happen that the Muslims who had come there by chance saw the image of the Blessed Lord Parsvanatha. Those wicked Muslims smashed the head off the image and left it lying there on the ground. Now a shepherd, grazing his flocks, passed by that place and saw the head of the God lying on the ground like that. He wept piteously and put the head back on the Lord’s body. It stuck perfectly, without even so much as a line to reveal the slash. And through the power of the Lord it stayed there, too, and has stayed right up to this very day and is still much worshipped.
  Thus is the account of the Glorious Lord Parsvanitha in the city of Suddhadanti, related by the Glorious monk Jinaprabha, exactly as he heard it told.
  • The Vividhatirthakalpa, quoted in Tales of Broken Limbs and Bleeding Wounds: Responses to Muslim Iconoclasm in Medieval India by Phyllis Granoff