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 63

YASASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
rolling to the seventh floor below, followed by his mother who also rolled down after him, but he managed somehow to rise and climb up the Mandara mountain. The dream was unpleasant in the beginning, but pleasant towards the end, and the king could not guess its significance; yet he remained indifferent, bent as he was on the conquest of the life beyond.
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Next morning the king appeared in court, and his mother also joined him there, but he gave her a different version of the dream with a view to making her more readily consent to his idea of renouncing the world. He spoke of having dreamt that he had transferred the kingdom to prince Gunadhara and become a monk and fallen from the top of the palace. The mother, who was an adept in the science of dreams, at once suggested that, in order to counteract the evil effect of the vision, he should assume the garb of a monk for a few days, and sacrifice different kinds of animals at the altar of the tutelary goddess. The king was horrified at the idea of killing animals, as he held ahimsa to be the basis of Dharma. The mother, however, persisted in her demand; and the king, finding it impossible to reconcile his religious principles with obedience to his mother, drew his sword to kill himself and asked her to worship the tutelary goddess with his blood. This led to a commotion among those present at the court, and the mother got frightened and deterred her son from the attempt. At this moment a cock crowed, and the old lady suggested that he should sacrifice before the goddess not a live cock, but one made out of paste. The king agreed and 'killed' with his sword an artificial cock in the shrine of the goddess, while the mother prayed for his longevity and health. The paste model was then roasted as if it were a real cock, and despite the objection of the king to the eating of meat, he was induced by his mother to partake of the sacrificial offering, on the plea that it was not real meat that he had been asked to eat.
Next day the young prince Gunadhara was installed on the throne, and preparations were made for the king's departure as a religious mendicant, The queen Nayanavali now thought if she did not accompany the king and share in his ascetic life, it would cause a great scandal; on the other hand, if he died, it would be possible for her to abstain from suttee on the plea that she would have to act as regent during her son's minority. Accordingly she decided to murder her husband by poisoning.
The hour of dinner arrived, and Nayanavali took her meal with the king. She had, however, secretly mixed poison with a digestive pill, and gave it to her husband at the end of the meal after the withdrawal of the guards. The king, suspecting nothing, took the pill and retired to his chamber and at once showed symptoms of poisoning. A hue and cry