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30. THE STORY OF UJJHITAKA
When the revered ascetic Mahavira was residing in a place called Vånijagrăma along with his favourite disciple Gautama, he narrated the following story:
One of these days Gautama had gone on his usual rounds of collecting alms in the town when in the main square he saw a number of elephants in their armour and also a large number of horses and soldiers in battle readiness. He was wondering whether the army of the king was marching towards the battle field and a war was declared. But in the midst of all this, he saw a man in an extremely miserable condition. His neck was bent behind, being tied down by his hair; his ears and nose were cut off and from his body small pieces of flesh, as small as the grains of sesamum were plucked and he was being made to eat them. He was already lashed a hundred strokes with a whip. He was given thin clothes to wear and one could see his body was all covered with dust. A rope was hanging round his neck and a loud beating of drums and cries of men and women around, drowned his shrieks of misery. Gautama felt greatly moved by this pathetic spectacle of a young man being tortured like this and he wondered for what sort of sins which he had committed in his former existence he was being tortured and tormented in this manner.
At that time, the king of Vānijagrama was Mitra and his queen was Sri. It was very prosperous city, made all the more famous by a courtesan named Kāmadhvajā. She was an exquisitely beautiful young woman, perfect in all her limbs, very accomplished in singing and dancing and equally intelligent too. She had acquired
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| SR No. | 006762 |
| Book Title | Treasury of Jain Tales |
| 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 |