Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Página 735

VARIOUS HOLY PATRIARCHS
also worship.
Their history
is
695
contained in the Prathaman i-
yoga.
These venerable personages are subdivided into rive
twenty-four Tirthankaras, twelve Chakravartis, nine
classes
:
Vasu-devatas, nine Bala-vasu-devatas, and nine Bala-ramas.
The twenty-four Tirthankaras are the holiest, and to
them most honour is paid. Their position is the most
sublime that a mortal can aspire to. They all lived in the
most perfect state of Nirvana. They were subject to no
infirmity or sickness
they felt no want, no weakness, and
were not even subject to death. After having lived for a
long time on earth they voluntarily quitted their bodies and
went straight to moksha, where they were united with, and
;
incorporated into, the Godhead.
All the Tirthankaras came down from Swarga and took
human forms among the Kshatriya caste but they were
subsequently incorporated into that of the Brahmins by the
ceremony of the diksha 1
During their lives they were
examples of all the virtues to other men, whom they ex-
horted by their precepts and their actions to conform strictly
to the rules of conduct laid down by Adiswara, and to give
th