Page Text
________________
DAMANAKA
157
Damanaka died. He had now no guardian to look after him and the vast property took no time to disappear. At last, the orphan took shelter with another merchant, Sagarpoat by name.
One day, some monks came to Sagarpoat's house to seek food The eldest of them, when he saw the boy, casually observed to his fellow monks that the boy's auspicious karma was not now very far from coming up and that eventually he would be the head of that very household.
Naturally, the observation could not be relished by the merchant, particularly so when he had a son to inherit his fortune. So at once he thought out a plan to kill him. He sent for the butcher and gave him the assignment. The butcher took the boy to a deep forest. But as he looked at his face, he took pity on him and could not withhold his disgust of the merchant who had given him a cruel assignment. He pierced Damanaka's finger, took a few drops of blood, and released him. He asked him to flee at once and never to show his face in that region.
When all alone in the forest, and deeply afflicted by terror, Damanaka met a cow-herd, who heard his account and took him home Here started a new chapter in his life. He was now assisting the cow-herd and this work he did not dislike.
Many years passed in this way and Damanaka was now a young man. One day, it so happened that the merchant Sagarpoat came to that very place on business He saw the young man and liked him very much He learnt on enquiry that this was an orphan whom the cow-herd had picked up from the forest years back,
1
The merchant had now no doubt that this was the boy whom he had himself condemned years back His old apprehensions revived and once more he was determined to wipe him out of existence So he requested the cowherd to lend him the service of the boy to carry an urgent message to his son
Damanaka reached the outskirts of the city of Rajagriha with the merchant's letter in his hand. He took shelter in a temple to rest and he didn't know when he fell fast asleep. The envelop lay beside him
→
| SR No. | 011053 |
| Book Title | Jain Stories 02 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Mahendramuni, K C Lalwani |
| Publisher | A B Jain Shwetambar Terapanth Samaj |
| Publication Year | 1976 |
| Total Pages | 205 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 9 MB |