Jaina Literature in Tamil

SR No.: 001627
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A Chakravarti, K V Ramesh
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith
Publication Year: 1974
Total Pages: 258
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Literature, & Religion
File Size: 12 MB

Page 110

JAINA LITERATURE IN TAMIL
85
This seems to be the main theme of the story in which incidentally many of the doctrines relating to the Jaina religion are introduced. Hence the work must be placed after the period of the reformation in ritualism associated with the founder of Mādhva philosophy.
The scene of the story is laid in Rājapura in Oudaya-dēśa, in Bharata-khanda. Māridatta is the name of the king. There is a Kāli temple in the city dedicated to Canda-Māridēvī. It was the time of a great festival for this Caņda-Māridēvī. For the purpose of sacrificing, there were gathered in the temple precincts, pairs of birds and animals, male and female, such as fowls, peacocks, birds, goats, buffaloes and so on. These were brought by the people of the town as their offerings to the devī. The king Māridatta, to be consistent with the status and position of rāja, wanted to offer as sacrifice not merely the ordinary beasts or birds but a pair of human beings as well. So he instructed his officer to fetch a pair of human beings, a male and a female, to be offered as a sacrifice to the goddess Kālī. The officer accordingly went about in search of human victims. Just about that time a Jaina Sangha consisting of 500 ascetics presided over by Sudattācārya came and settled at the park in the outskirts of the city. In this Sangha there were two youths Abhayaruci and Abhayamati, brother and sister. These two young apprentices, since they were not accustomed to the rigorous discipline characteristic of the grown up monks in the Sangha, were very much fatigued on account of the long travel and were permitted by the head of the Sangha to enter the town for