The Descent, the Dreams and the Birth

The opening of the story

High above the world, in the tenth heaven, Pranat, there was a palace of light called Pushpottar, and the god who lived in it was coming to the end of a very long life. He had lived there for twenty sagaropam, an age so vast that the scriptures can only measure it in oceans of years. When other gods have six months left, the tradition says, their garlands begin to fade, and Acharya Hemachandra adds that their minds grow troubled. This god's splendour never dimmed, not even at the end.

The soul in that shining body had come a long way. Once it had been the woodcutter Nayasar, who shared his food with monks lost in a forest. It had been the proud Marichi, and the mighty Triprishta, and at last the muni Nandan, who fasted month after month for a hundred thousand years and bound the karma of a Tirthankar. Now its time in heaven was over. It was going down to earth for the last time.