Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

SR No.: 001609
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 566
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Story, Literature, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

Page 429

YASASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
presenting him with a magic formula enabling one to travel through the air. Jinadatta, in his turn, gave the formula to his pupil Dharasena, after having utilized it for the purpose of visiting the Jaina shrines on the Mountain of the gods.
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Turning from the veteran Jinadatta, the two gods decided to try their tactics on a novice, recently initiated into the Jaina faith. They happened to see Padmaratha, the king of Mithila, going to worship the Tīrthamkara Vasupujya on the very day of his initiation; and immediately began to disturb him by conjuring up various scenes of horror including certain tiger-shaped monstrosities. Unable to strike terror into his heart, they plunged him into a huge expanse of mud, but the drowning prince only said Salutation to Lord Vasupujya!' The two gods then extolled Padmaratha's courage and fortitude, and took their departure.
The value of intrepid courage and resolution in the practice of religion is further illustrated in a sequel to the main story. Dharasena, who had received the magic formula for aerial travel from Jinadatta, began the perilous mystic rites necessary for its practical application amidst the nocturnal horrors of a cremation ground. The details of the rites are obscure, but the main item seems to have been the suspension of a swing from the branch of a banyan tree over a consecrated ground, bristling with numerous sharp arrows fixed in the earth with upturned points: the devotee was to mount on the swing and cut the arrows to pieces. while uttering the magic formula. Meanwhile, Lalita, the misguided son of a king, who had turned thief, having been robbed of his patrimony by relatives, came out in the darkness, on the mission of stealing for his mistress a famous necklace belonging to the chief queen of the lord of Kuśāgrapura. He succeeded in his venture, but could not evade the police owing to the lustre of the necklace being visible in the darkness. So he threw away the ornament, and walking about in the outskirts of the city, came upon the scene of Dharasena's mystic rites. Seeing that Dharasena was hesitating to mount the swing, the thief questioned him about the procedure; and having acquainted himself with the sacred formula, boldly seated himself on the swing and cut off at one stroke the entire mass of arrows. As a result of his bravery, the thief acquired the magic powers longed for by Dharasena, and later became a Jaina ascetic and attained salvation on the mount of Kailasa.
II) The sacrifice of personal ambition and self-interest for the sake of one's vow is illustrated in the story of Anantamati, the beautiful daughter of the merchant Priyadatta, an inhabitant of Campā. On the eve