Lord Mallinath: The Powerful Story of Jainism’s 19th Tirthankara - Jain Stuti Stavan

A long time ago, King Mahäbal ruled over the city of Veetshoka in the Mahävideha region of Jambudweep.  King Mahäbal had six very close childhood friends.  The seven of them were so close that they did everything together.  None of them would do anything without seeking the advice of the others.

One day, a well-known Ächärya named Dharmaghosh-suri came to Veetshoka.  King Mahäbal and his friends went to listen to his sermon and were very impressed.  Mahäbal realized that extreme misery and pain exists in living a worldly life, so he decided to renounce worldly life.  Upon sharing his intentions with his friends, they agreed to do the same.  His friends also renounced their worldly lives along with him.  King Mahäbal and his six friends became monks and disciples of Ächärya Dharmaghosh-suri.

As monks, these seven friends observed austerities, meditation and restraints together.  However, during meditation, Mahäbal felt an intense compassion and motherly love (Vätsalya Bhäv) to help free every living being from suffering and to guide them towards liberation.  Because of this intense compassion towards every living being, Mahäbal acquired Tirthankar-Näm-Karma.  At the same time, because of his intense motherly love, he acquired the karma that he would be born as a female in the future, according to Shvetambar tradition.  However, Digambar tradition indicates that Mallinäth was male.

All seven friends continued to observe increasingly difficult austerities and remained in deep meditation throughout their lives.  At the end of their lives, they all attained a heavenly abode.  After completing their heavenly life spans, Mahäbal and his six friends were born in different places as human beings.

During this time King Kumbha was ruling over the city of Mithilä, India.  He had a queen named Prabhävati.  While she was pregnant, she saw 14 (16 by the Digambar tradition) pious dreams indicating the arrival of a Tirthankar soul.  Since Mahäbal had earned the Tirthankar-Näm-Karma and a female gender karma, his soul descended into the womb of Prabhävati and was born as Princess Malli.  (The Digambar tradition believes that Tirthankar Mallinäth was male).  A few years later, Queen Prabhävati had a son named Malladin.

The six friends of Mahäbal were reborn as princes in different kingdoms.  They eventually became powerful kings of the cities of Hastinäpur, Ayodhyä, Champä, Käshi, Kämpilyapur, and Shrävasti.  All of these cities were located in the present states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

King Kumbha and Queen Prabhävati lovingly raised their children Malli and Malladin.  Princess Malli was exceedingly charming and beautiful and grew up to be a very attractive girl.  Malladin respected his older sister.  King Kumbha wanted to give them the best education and therefore entrusted their training to highly respected teachers who taught them all the required arts and crafts.  Princess Malli mastered all the fine arts and became a talented and accomplished princess.  Malladin learned all the martial arts and became a bold and brave youth.

At one point, King Kumbha decided to establish an art gallery in Mithilä.  A marvelous building was constructed for this purpose and all well-known artists were invited to make their artistic contribution to the gallery.  One artist from Hastinäpur possessed a special power to prepare an accurate portrait of anyone by merely seeing one part of his or her body.  He once happened to see the toe of princess Malli and from that, he drew an accurate portrait of princess Malli on the wall.  Even the smallest details were accurately portrayed.  It was so lifelike that when prince Malladin came to see the gallery and looked at the portrait, he felt as if his sister were standing there and actually folded his hands as a token of respect.

When he realized that it was merely a portrait, he was puzzled as to how the artist had obtained such minute details of his sister’s body.  He was told of the special power and the talent that the artist possessed.  Although he recognized the rarity of this accomplishment, the prince also foresaw the dangers of such a talent.  He therefore wanted to prevent the use of that special power.  The artist was asked to abandon his art in return for a suitable reward.  The artist refused and insisted upon his freedom of artistic expression.  In order to prevent the misuse of the artist’s talents, the prince ordered that the thumb of the artist be cut off; and the artist decided immediately to take revenge.

The angry artist returned to Hastinäpur without one thumb.  He found another artist who could draw a portrait of princess Malli according to his instructions.  In time he prepared an even more attractive portrait of Malli and presented it to the King of Hastinäpur (who was Malli’s close friend in a previous life).  The King was very impressed by the portrait, fell in love with Malli, and decided to make princess Malli his wife.  He sent a marriage proposal to King Kumbha of Mithilä.

In the same manner the kings of Ayodhyä, Champä, Käshi, Kämpilyapur and Shrävasti also learned of the exceptional beauty of princess Malli and sent marriage proposals.  After considering these proposals, King Kumbha did not find any of them suitable for Malli and rejected them all.  This angered the six kings, who decided to conquer the city of Mithilä together in order to get princess Malli.  King Kumbha faced them with all his might but he could not withstand the combined strength of the invading forces.  He retreated back to his kingdom and closed the gates of the city.  The invading forces then laid siege on Mithilä, but the city would not be able to withstand the siege for long.

When princess Malli came to know of the situation, she contemplated on the issue.  Gifted with an enlightened mind, she realized that the root cause of the problem lay in her earlier life.  She recalled her life as King Mahäbal and realized that due to their deep affection for her in their previous lives, all six of the kings even now desired to be near her.  Malli decided that since she was the cause of the problem, she herself should find a solution.  She requested her father not to worry and to leave everything to her.

Upon remembering that the palace had a hall with six doors, Malli came up with a plan.  Behind each door she arranged beautifully furnished rooms.  The doors of the hall were fitted with a fine screen through which people sitting in the rooms could look into but not see what was happening in the other five rooms.

Malli commissioned a statue of herself so lifelike that anyone looking at the statue would believe that it was the princess herself.  The statue was hollow with a hole at the top which could be covered tightly.  The statue was placed in the middle of the hall and a maidservant was asked to put a morsel of food twice a day within its cavity and then close its top immediately.

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Then, princess Malli requested her father to send invitations to all six kings to come to the hall to meet her.  The plan was to invite them to the hall in the evening and have them wait in the room assigned to them.  At the appropriate time, all of the kings came and occupied their respective rooms.  As they glanced through the screen, they immediately noticed the beautiful statue of Malli.  Each of them thought it was Princess Malli herself and anxiously waited to go inside.  They also noticed that Malli was far more beautiful than they had expected and fell even more deeply in love with her.

As they were waiting, princess Malli entered the hall through a secret tunnel and, standing behind the statue, opened the top of the cavity.  The food that had been put in the statue had rotted and emitted a foul odor.  The smell was so obnoxious that the kings had to cover their nose.  Thereupon the real Malli presented herself and asked why they could not stand the smell of the person whom they loved so much.  They admitted that they could not bear the foul odor.

Malli then explained that the food she ate was the same food in the statue.  The food in her body did not stink because her soul prevented the rotting.  However, when her soul would leave the body, her body too would start to decay.  It is the nature of the body to degenerate, decay, and disintegrate.  Malli asked the kings, “What is the purpose of being attached to a body when it is destined to rot eventually?  Is it not worthwhile to pursue something that will last forever?”

As the kings stood there in amazement, she explained that in their past lives they were seven very close friends who had done everything together.  Upon hearing this, the kings recalled their past lives and what they had renounced.  The seven of them now felt an acute sense of detachment for their short-lived worldly life.  They all decided to renounce the world in order to enhance the spiritual pursuit that they had left undone in the earlier life.

Very elaborate arrangements were made for the renunciation ceremony of Princess Malli.  She gave up everything and adopted self-initiation at a place known as Sahasräbhavan.  She destroyed all of her destructive Karma (Ghäti Karmas that affect the nature and quality of the soul) in a very short time and attained Keval-jnän (omniscience) on the very same day, becoming the 19th Tirthankar of the Jain religion.  Thereafter she traveled throughout the country for a long time to show the path of liberation to others.  Ultimately, she attained liberation on Mount Sametshikhar.

The Shvetämbar tradition believes that Tirthankar Mallinäth was a female and the other 23 Tirthankars were male.  Idols of Tirthankars represent the qualities of the Arihantas and not their physical body.  Hence, the physical appearance of the idols of all the Tirthankars is the same without any indication of male or female gender.

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