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________________ 422 STUDIES IN JAIN LITERATURE Makaranda gladly accepts it. The maid and the attendant disapprove of this act. The attendant angrily depricates her action saying that it is against the code of conduct for a trader's daughter to offer her pair of earrings as present to a stranger. He threatens to bring policemen and get back by force the earrings from the stranger. He leaves the scene of action. Bandhula is afraid that he might act on his threat and therefore her mistress should tell the stranger of her impending calamity. Just at that moment gamblers arrive there in search of Makaranda, their debtor. He advises the maiden to go home by the back-door and to see him at that very place the next day at midnight. The maiden with the maid leaves the stage. Makaranda, realising that he has been seen by the gamblers with the help of a lamp now hides himself in the hinder part of the temple. Act II : The conversation between Lavangika, a female servant of Mallika, and Koraka, an attendant of the merchant Brahmadatta (the foster-father of Mallika) informs us that Mallika has been suffering for the last eight days from love's fever. At his master's behest Koraka gets an announcement made by the beating of drum that the person who would protect Mallika from being (mysteriously) abducted would be paid five hundred dinars. A rogue (Kitava, in the present case, a gambler) has taken upon himself to protect Mallika. Koraka informs the merchant Brahmadatta and his wife Bandhumati, the foster-parents of Mallika, that they have succeeded in finding a 'rescuer' of Mallika. The merchant asks another servant of his. Sundaraka by name, to bring in his presence the rogue (gambler) who is a debtor and other gamblers, his creditors who are holding him up. The merchant promises the creditors that he would pay off the debts to them the next morning. The creditors, satisfied with his assurance free the debtor and leave the merchant's residence. He learns from the gambler that his name is Makaranda. The merchant and his wife try to dissuade this young, handsome man from his resolve to protect Mallika from being abducted by some unknown agency but he remains firm. The merchant then tells him how sixteen years ago he came across a deserted newly-born girl with a signet-ring on her finger and a bhurjakandaka' (a piece of birch-leaf or amulet) on her forearm. He took up the girl and entrusted her to the care of his wife Bandhumati. As the child was found in the shade of Jasmine plants she has been named as Mallika by them. The signet-ring bears the name of the Vidyadhara king Vainateya by name, and birch-leaf bears one sentence : "At the end of sixteen years on the fourteenth day of the dark half of the month of Caitra she would be forcibly taken away by killing her husband-cum-protector." Makaranda now realizes that it is impossible to rescue the girl but puts up appearances and tells Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org
| SR No. | 001868 |
| Book Title | Studies in Jain Literature |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | V M Kulkarni |
| Publisher | Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre |
| Publication Year | 2001 |
| Total Pages | 114 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English, Literature, & Story |
| File Size | 14 MB |