Bhagawän Mallinäth

A long time ago King Mahäbal ruled over the city of Veetshoka in Mahä-videha region of
Jambudvipa. King Mahäbal had six very close childhood friends. All seven of them were so close that they did everything
together. None of them did anything without seeking the advice of the others.

Once a well-known Ächärya named Dharmaghosh-suri came to Veetshoka city. 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. He decided to renounce worldly life and shared his desire with his friends. His friends also agreed to renounce their worldly life along with him. King Mahäbal and his six friends became monks and disciples of Dharmaghosh-suri.

 

As monks, these seven friends observed austerities and restraints together. Unknown to
his friends however, Mahäbal sought more than just freedom from the pains of worldly life. He had an intense desire to make every living being free from suffering and to guide them towards liberation. This desire leads to the acquisition

of the Tirthankar-Näm-Karma. To achieve his objective, Mahäbal secretly observed longer austerities. Because of this intense penance, Mahäbal acquired Tirthankar-Näm-Karma. At the same time, because of this secrecy he acquired the karma that he would be born as a female in the future.

 

All of them continued to observe ever-increasing austerities throughout their lives. At the end of their
lives, all of them attained a heavenly abode. After completing the heavenly life span, Mahäbal and his six
friends were born as human beings in different places.

 

During this time King Kumbha was ruling over the city of Mithilä, India. He had a Queen 

named Prabhävati. She was pregnant and 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 his soul descended into the womb of Prabhävati and was born as Princess Malli. (The Digambar tradition believes that Tirthankar Mallinäth was male and rejects the acquisition of female gender Karma). A few years later, Queen Prabhävati had a son named Malladin.

 

The six friends of Mahäbal were reborn as princes in different kingdoms and in due course

became powerful kings of the cities of Hastinäpur, Ayodhyä, Champä, Käshi, Kämpilypur, and Shrävasti. All 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 elder 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 very talented and accomplished princess. Malladin learned all the martial arts and became a bold and brave youth.

 

King Kumbha decided to establish an art gallery in Mithilä. A marvelous building

was constructed for this purpose and all the well-known artists were invited to make their artistic contribution to the gallery. An artist from Hastinäpur had an exceptional ability and 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. The portrait was excellent and displayed every minute detail of the princess. It was so lifelike that when prince Malladin came to see the gallery and looked at the portrait he felt as if his sister was 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.
It was no doubt a very rare accomplishment. However, the prince foresaw the dangers of such 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. The artist was very angry and displeased and decided 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 a yet more attractive portrait of Malli and presented the portrait to the king of Hastinäpur (who was once Malli’s close friend in their previous life). The king was very impressed by the portrait. He 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, Kämpilypur and Shrävasti also
learnt of the exceptional beauty of princess Malli and all of them sent their proposals to marry her. After considering these proposals, King Kumbha did not find any of the proposals suitable for Malli and rejected them all. This angered the six kings and they decided to conquer the city of Mithilä in order to get princess Malli. King Kumbha boldly 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. The city could not withstand the siege from the six kingdoms. This was indeed
a big problem.

When princess Malli came to know of the situation and the problem 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 all the events of that life. She realized that due to their deep
affection for her in their previous life all the six kings coveted to be near her.

 

 

 

 

Statue of Malli.

Princess Malli commissioned a lifelike statue of herself so that anyone looking at the statue would believe that it was the princess herself. The inside of 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 to close its top immediately.

 

Then she 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 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 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. The food that was 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 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 they were seven very close friends and had done

everything together. Upon hearing this they recalled their past lives and what they had renounced. This raised an acute sense of detachment for the short-lived worldly life. All of them decided to renounce the world in order to enhance their 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 Sahasrämravan. 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. She became 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.

 

This body is a mere vessel that holds the soul. Upon death, the soul simply moves to another body unless one attains liberation from the cycle of birth and death. One needs to realize that this veil of skin and flesh is mortal. Physical beauty is deceptive and temporary. Princess Malli made this point through the statue and the rotten food. The importance of our human life is that it is a means of attaining liberation from the cycle of birth and death. One needs to rise above the physical aspects of life and use this life to progress spiritually so that the soul can attain liberation.