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CHAPTER EIGHT
astonishment simultaneously, Kumbhakarna and the others said in a choking voice: "There is no advantage to us in kingdoms nor in subjects, O king. We intend to take mendicancy which results in the empire of emancipation."
Previous births of Indrajit and Meghavāhana (17-33)
Just then a muni, named Aprameyabala, who had four kinds of knowledge, came to the garden Kusumāyudha. In that same place at night his brilliant omniscience appeared and the gods held an omnisciencefestival. At dawn Rama and Saumitri, Kumbhakarṇa and others, went and paid homage to him and then listened to dharma. At the end of the sermon Sakrajit and Meghavahana, who had reached extreme disgust with existence, asked about their former births. The muni said:
"In the city Kauśāmbi here in Bhārata you were two poor brothers, Prathama and Paścima. One day after hearing dharma from Muni Bhavadatta they took the vow and became mendicants, their passions subdued. Once upon a time they went to Kauśambi and saw King Nandighosa sporting with his wife Indumukhi in the spring festival. Seeing him, Paścima made a nidana: "By this penance may I become their son, engaged in such sport.' Though restrained by the monks, he did not retract the nidana and after his death Paścima became their son, Rativardhana. In course of time having grown up, Rativardhana succeeded to the kingdom and, surrounded by his wives, engaged in numerous sports, like his father.
After his death the monk Prathama became a powerful god in the fifth heaven as a result of his penance free from a nidana. Knowing by clairvoyance that his brother had become king there, the god went in the form of a muni to enlighten him. He sat down on a seat offered by King Rativardhana and related his former birth and his own from friendship for his
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