Treasury of Jain Tales

SR No.: 006762
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: V M Kulkarni
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre
Publication Year: 1994
Total Pages: 468
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

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Jitasatru. After his death, he had become a god and now he had come to this world as king Drdhasimha's son Simharatha by name. He would come along to marry her. The girl asked how exactly could they meet each other when she has been almost imprisoned in the palace. The god Vänavyantara answered that Simharatha would surely come there. He would be carried there by a horse that has been trained in the inverse manner. Kanakamālā should therefore continue to remain there and feel no anxiety whatever. Her young man was bound to meet her there and god Vänavvantara, as her father, would remain there only in the same palace and look after her. Kanakamālā accordingly spent her time pleasantly in the palace till prince Simharatha arrived there and now she completed the account of her life by telling Simharatha that she herself was the girl. Her father in the meantime, she said, had gone to mount Meru to worship the various shrines there. In the course of the same afternoon, prince Simhartha arrived in the palace and out of excessive longing for him, she could not wait till her father arrived but rushed through the wedding ceremony in the balcony of the palace.
Prince Simharatha recollected his previous birth. God Vänavyantara also arrived, accompanied by a troupe of gods. Kanakamālā told him the story of her own marriage and god Vanavyantara felt very happy. The husband and wife remained in the same palace for another month when the prince remembered the state of affairs in his own city. Perhaps his enemies had attacked it. Therefore, he should be going back and Kanakamālā let him do so but suggested that he should accept from her a certain magical spell called Pannatti (prajñapti) which will enable him to reach his city quickly enough. When the king reached his city, he was given a very rousing welcome. A great festival was celebrated in his honour and the king's ministers and servants asked him about the various adventures that had kept him away from the city. The king told them of all that had happened. They were all astonished. But the only conclusion they could draw was: "Wherever the man of merit goes through a foreign country, into the forest or to the middle of the sea, there he is always happy. Therefore, do you acquire merit."