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68
Life and Stories of Pārçvanātha
laden with precious wares, encountered a fierce gale and was smashed into a hundred pieces (924). But he saved himself upon a plank,50 landed in a forest, and reflected upon the folly of his greed. In that forest he saw a Sage, paid his respects to him, and asked him why he had become a miser, and why he had lost his wealth. The Sage narrated (891-930):
Story of the two brothers, one stingy, the other generous
In Dhātakikhandabhārata lived two brothers, Dhanādhya and Gșhasambhūta. At the death of their father the older, as head of the family, was upright and generous; the younger was stingy, and hated to see his older brother practise generosity. Yet Çrī ( Fortune ') attended the older, so that he prospered notwithstanding his openhandedness, whereas the younger was abandoned by Çri.51 In time the older brother abandoned the world, died, and was reborn as a distinguished god in the Sāudharma heaven; the younger, having done scant penance, also died, and was reborn as an Asura (941); ' You (namely, Dhanasāra of the preceding story) are derived from the Asuras, but the older, having fallen from Sāudharma, was born in Tāmaliptī as the son of a wealthy merchant, and attained the wisdom of a Kevalin: I am he. This accounts both for your stinginess, and the loss of your wealth' (945). The Sage then continued to discourse on generosity and stingines, illustrating by story (931-958):
.See note 33, on p. 49. * See additional note 21, on p. 202.
