Page Text
________________
203
merchant and his wife were most anxious that at least this time the child should not be still-born and as soon as the child was born they placed him under a cart so that it would have long life. The son indeed survived and lived a long life. He was given the name Sakata which means a cart.
During one of his voyages, Subhadra, the father of Sakata, was shipwrecked in the Lavana Ocean and he died. When the news reached his house, his wife Bhadrā died of the shock and the poor boy was turned out of his house by the creditors of his father. Sakata grew up happily on the streets of the town. One of these days he came in contact with a young girl Sudarsanã by name who later became an extremely popular courtesan in the town, having a very rich clientele. The Chief Minister of the town Susena was one of them but the courtesan could not get over her fascination for Sakata and she continued to show favours to him. Susena decided to make Sudarsanā his own mistress and gave her a big house, a number of servants and plenty of wealth. He also forebade her entertaining Sakata any more but they did meet secretly and did enjoy all kinds of pleasures in each other's company. Once Susena saw Sudarsană in the arms of Sakata and felt terribly enraged. He ordered his servants to capture the young man and break his bones. They bound him in such a way that his neck was bent far behind. The minister approached the king with the complaint that Sakata had committed the offence of intruding upon his privacy and demanded severe punishment. The king however left the matter to the minister himself. The minister ordered Sakat a and Sudarsanā to be marched out of the house into the main street. This is where Gautama had seen him in that miserable condition. After the torture was o
a's hands were untied but he was made to embrace a red hot iron statue of a woman and this is how Sakata died.
Mahavira told Gautama that Sakata would be born as a hell-being in the region of hell called Ratnaprabhā. After his stay there was over, he and Sudarsana would be re-born as twins in a mätariga family in the city of Rājagrha where their names would continue to be the same. They would both grow to be attractive
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
| 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 |