Across ten books and ten vanished ages, the Trishashti Shalaka Purusha Charitra tells one vast, shimmering story in many lives: that of the sixty-three illustrious persons through whom the Jain path of non-violence, renunciation, and liberation is renewed again and again. Here are the twenty-four Tirthankaras — the ford-makers who carry souls across the river of suffering to freedom — from the first, Rishabhanatha, to the great Mahavira; the twelve Chakravartins who rule the world with justice; and the nine Baladevas, nine Vasudevas, and nine Prati-Vasudevas whose adventures and defeats reveal the quiet working of karma. Written in the twelfth century by the celebrated Jain teacher Hemachandra, this Sanskrit classic gathers centuries of legend into one luminous epic of compassion, impermanence, and the long journey of the soul. This edition makes that timeless work newly welcoming: faithful to the original's meaning and spirit, yet set down in clear, inviting, present-day English for today's general readers. Part of The World Scriptures Library.