Sthaviravali Charitra or Parisista Parva

SR No.: 010713
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hermann Jacobi
Publisher: Asiatic Society
Publication Year: 1932
Total Pages: 467
Language: Sanskrit, Hindi
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 12 MB

Page 83

CONTENTS.
lxxxu
answer, the Sangha again despatched two monks who should ask Bhadrabahu what penalty he incurred who disobeyed the Sangha If he should anstrer "excommunication," then they should reply that such tras to be his punishment. Everything coming about as foreseen Bhadrababu requested, that out of consideration for his row, the Sangha should send him some clever monks to whom he would daily deliver seven lessons at suitable times. Accordingly five hundred monks, with Sthūlabhadra as their leader, were sent to Bhadrabāhu But all of them, except Sthūlabhadra, becoming tired by the slowness of their progress, soon fell off, Sthūlabhadra alone stayed out the whole term of his master's vot. At the end of it he had learned the first ten Purvas (55-76).
The seven sisters of Sthūlabhadra, paying their reverence to Bhadrabāhu after his arrival in Pătalıputra, asked him where their brother stayed, and were directed to some temple. On their approach Sthūlabhadra transformed himself into a lion, in order to gratify his sisters with the sight of a miracle Of course the frightened girls ran back to the guru to tell bim that their brother had been devoured by a lion. Bhadrabāhu, honerer, assured them that their brother was alive, and so they found him on their return to the temple The eldest of the sisters then proceeded to give him the following account of their adventures (77-83)
Śriyaka who had entered the order together with his sisters was too weak to keep the prescribed fasts She had, therefore, tried to accustom him to them by making him promise to protract his fast from one term to another and again to another, but luis strength at last gave way and he died. She had reproached herself with having caused his death, and though the Sangha bad declared her free from all guilt, she would not be satisfied without an absolving sentence from a Jina. The Sangha, therefore, by joining in a common penance, induced a Sāsanaderatū to carry her to Sīmandharastāmin. This Jina
1 See above, p Ixvii