Two Prakrit Versions of Manipati Charitra

SR No.: 007017
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: R Williams
Publisher: Royal Asiatic Society
Publication Year: 1959
Total Pages: 384
Language: English, Prakrit
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

Page 32

THE STORIES
19
The frame-story
There is a close parallel in the BKK (No. 102: Jinadattakathānaka). A king, Manipati who has become a Jaina ascetic is standing in the kayotsarga in the park outside Ujjain. A kāpālika seeking skulls takes him for dead and, bringing two more corpses, joyfully lights a funeral fire. The ascetic's head twitches when the fire is kindled and the kāpālika runs away in fear. A compassionate man who finds the muni's charred and motionless body informs a rich merchant named Jinadatta who has him brought to his own home and summons a physician. Lakṣapaka oil is procured from the house of Cunkarika who refuses to be made angry even when Jinadatta three times drops and smashes a pot of this oil. When cured the muni decides to spend the rainy season with Jinadatta who later buries a pot of jewels under his dwelling. However his profligate son sees him hide it and steals it. The ascetic who has seen both the hiding and the stealing says nothing. At the close of the rains when Manipati is going away Jinadatta mistakenly accuses him of theft. Ten stories are then exchanged between them; five told by Jinadatta deal with ingratitude, whilst the muni in his replies warns against the danger of indiscriminate charges. After the tenth (which corresponds to that of Metarya in the MPC) Jinadatta's graceless son confesses his crime and father and son, repenting of their thoughts and actions, take the digambara initiation.
A parallel incident from the conclusion of the SK1 is worth noting. In an aśoka grove at Avanti Samarāditya is engaged in meditation when Girişeņa who hates him catches sight of him and kindles a fire around him with oily rags. Samarāditya is unperturbed and attains kevala. A god extinguishes the fire.
The story of Tilabhatta obviously taken directly from the MPC is found in the Upadesa-prāsāda,2 a voluminous work by the late eighteenth century writer, Vijayalakṣmi Sūri.
(d) Accankariyabhaṭṭā
This story is also found in the same tale from the BKK. In reply to Jinadatta's question as to why the breaking of the pots of oil has not made her angry Accankariyabhaṭṭā relates
1 Samaraicca Kaha of Haribhadra ed. Jacobi. Bib. Ind. 169, p. 788. 2 Upadeśa-prasāda, pub. Bhavnagar, 1915-23. Vol. II, p. 63.