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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reached there and began to shake the tree. He also went round and round it like a potter's wheel. He went on shaking the tree with the result that the sesamum seeds felt like a shower of rain on the ground below and as the elephant in his angry manner, went round and round the tree, he crushed the seeds as powerfully as an oil mill. A large stream of oil started flowing. The elephant got stuck in it and died. I quickly climbed down the tree, made a bag from the hide of the elephant and filled it with oil. I was feeling hungry and I ate a lot of oil cake and drank ten pots of oil. I returned home with the bag which was full of oil. I hung it on a branch of a tree outside my village and came home. I asked my son to fetch the bag. He could not see the bag any where on the tree, so he lifted the whole tree and brought it home. There I left him with his tree and the bag and here I am telling you the story. See if you can prove it to be absurd, in case you don't, then arrange for the food."
His companions expressed the view that these ideas could easily be found in the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyana. They reminded him of what had been stated in the scriptures: "A terrible river started flowing from the rut of an elephant's temple. The river had such terrible force that it carried away with it other elephants, horses and chariots." About the size of the sesamum plant, it has been said that in Pătaliputra, a drum was once placed on a sesamum tree. So it should be possible. They would not dismiss the story as absurd."
It was now the turn of Müladeva :
I was once on my way to the abode of God Almighty, hoping to receive from him the stream of the mighty Gangā on my head. I had an umbrella and a gourd-kettle in my hand. But a wild elephant rushed at me. I was terribly scared. There was no shelter around there and in order to protect myself I entered the kettle. The elephant also followed me through the spout of the kettle. We fought in the kettle and for six months I kept him at bay. Then I escaped through the spout. The elephant also tried the same way. He nearly came out but his tail got stuck there. I saw the boundless Gangā flowing right in front of me. I crossed it easily as if it was a pot-hole, as small as an imprint of a cow's hoof. I reached the almighty's