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 67

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YAŠASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
ANALOGOUS STORIES Considered as a folk-tale, the story of Yasodhara is of considerable interest, although the motif of adultery is quite common in folklore and legend. The chief interest centres round the character of Amstamati, who represents a type recognised very early in Indian literature. An ancient Buddhist text, for example, speaking of the seven kinds of wives, refers to the first variety as vadhaka 'murderess' and describes her thus:
पदुद्दचित्ता अहितानुकंपिनी मम्नेसु रत्ता अतिमम्लते पति ।
धनेन कीतस्स वधाय उस्सुका या एवरूपा पुरिसस्स भारिया ॥
7091 Hitat fa a a gua Anguttaranikāya (Sattakanipāta LIX). The vadhaka wife, we are told, is corrupt in mind and addicted to evil; she despises her husband and reserves her affection for others; she is bent on murder, and may be purchased by wealth. Guilty of adultery and murder, Amstamati is vadhakā, but the characteristic thing about her is that she, a woman of high rank, has a lowborn paramour.
The closest parallel to the tale of Yasodhara and Amrtamati is found in another Jaina story, that of Devarati and Raktā. Devarati was the king of Ayodhyā and Raktā his queen. It is said that Raktā had & paramour in the person of a lame gardener, and got rid of the king by murdering him and throwing the corpse into a river. The story of Devarati and Raktā seems to be as old as the Yasodhara story, as it is referred to in Jasaharacariu (II. 10) of Puşpadanta', who, like Somadeva, belongs to the tenth century. The story is mentioned also in Anagāradharmāmrta (4. 77) of Asādhara who wrote about the middle of the thirteenth century,
Jaina narrative literature acquaints us with the existence of Amstamatis in middle-class society as well. In the story of the wealthy young merchant Dhana and his wife Dhanasri, occurring in the fourth Book of Haribhadra's Samarāiccakahā, Dhanasri has a paramour in the person of her servant Nandaka, administers poison to her husband, throws him overboard during a sea-voyage, and succeeds in killing him even after he has escaped and become a monk. In the similar story in the sixth Book of the same work, Lakşmi, the wife of the young and wealthy
1 णइसंममि दुइ वइरिणिए उवयारविमुक्कड सइरिणिए ।
उज्झाहिउ देवरइ ति मूदु पंगुलणिमित्तु रत्ताइ छूदु । 2 The story of Devarati is referred to in the Bhagavati Arădhană of Sivārya; and
it is given, in short or eleborately, in different Kathākošas. See Byhatkathākośa (ed. A. N. Upadhye, Bombay 1943). Intro, p. 76, Story No. 85, Notes p. 388.