Concealing And Protecting Stories On Upagahana

SR No.: 269498
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Luitgard Soni
Publisher: Luitgard Soni
Total Pages: 6
Language: English
Classification: Article, N000, & N999
File Size: 752 KB

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LUITGARD SONI
The following two stories are from the Brhat-katha-kosa of Harisena (BKK). The BKK is a representative collection of 157 stories of varying length, stretching over 12,500 slokas in Sanskrit. It is dated 931 CE. All the stories are based on gathas of the Bhagavati-sradhana (or Mülärädhanā; BhAr) of Śivarya, an early (fourth or fifth century CE) pro-canonical text of the Digambaras. There are two stories listed under the theme of upaguhana.
The first story is about the model behaviour of king Srenika which appears as story number 9 in the BKK, the Śrenika-nrpa-kathanaka. The following is a summary of the story with a few selected quotations:
King Śrenika was highly praised in the assembly of gods as having samyaktva with kṣayika, i.e. the true insight due to the destruction of darśana-mohaniya-karma. One of the gods, being envious, wanted to test the truth of this praise. He goes to Śreņika's town, disguised as a muni and fishes in the tank with nets. King Śrenika, full of devotion, comes to him to pay him the respects due to a Jaina muni. He sees him gathering fish and throwing them in a basket. He immediately descends from his elephant, circumambulates the monk and greets him with reverence. As he stands in front of him bent down in humility, Śrenika tells him: 'Someone who follows the mendicant path to liberation ought not kill fish, since that increases the course of existences (samsṛti). Therefore give me your net, I'll collect the fish for you in the basket and you, O sädhu, keep away!' Without a word the ascetic gives the net to the king who throws the net in the lake. At this the muni prevents him telling him that he did not need more fish and lauding him as a good Jaina he gives him leave. The king returns home with the muni, the net and the fish.
After this incident criticism is voiced among Śrenika's vassals. They say: 'How can the muni catch fish and how can the king be so foolish as to worship him? And how can our king, who actually rules over us follow the orders of the monk?' King Śrenika hears this criticism directed against Jaina principles (jina-sasana-düşaṇa) and thinks of teaching them a lesson. He smears stinking dirt and excrement on the letters with the royal edicts which the vassals have to receive. They hold the stinking leaves reverentially to their foreheads as if they were smelling of flowers. The king then asks them, how they could act in this way and they can only answer that with anything given by the king's grace there is no question of either dirt or kumkum. Śrenika then draws the analogy by saying: just as you accept with devotion all that is given by me, even though it might be foul smelling, so did 1, with
CONCEALING AND PROTECTING. STORIES ON UPAGÜHANA
devotion to the Jina, make my reverence to the fish catcher who looked like a muni.
At these words of the king the fisherman reveals himself as a heavenly being, explains the test-situation and praises and rewards Śrenika highly."
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In this story upaguhana has no connotation of concealing anything, on the contrary, everything is highly public. It is quite spectacular that the king venerates a fishing muni and then himself undertakes to perform the unroyal and, as a Jaina, even the sinful act of fishing. The king does it in a demonstrative manner, acting out the model relation between a layman and a king towards a monk. As a layman he makes good for the misbehaviour of the monk by taking the sin upon himself, albeit not without pointing out the monk's breach of behaviour and reminding him of his ascetic duties. This is in keeping with the duty of lay-people, namely, to support the ideals of the ascetics and to make it possible for them to live up to and according to theses ideals. As a king he fulfils his duty of protecting the religious principles by using his authority to eradicate the criticism against himself as a pious Jaina and against the sweeping criticism against the apparently bad monk, who actually cannot pollute the true religion taught by the Jina.
Finally, the blame on the religion and the ascetic is lifted by revealing that the whole affair was merely orchestrated to test Śrepika's righteousness and so there
"Haribhadrasuri gives the theme of this story in two lines in his Vrtti no. 5 to the nirvukti of DVS 3 (p. 91) as an example for upaguhana: 'A God, doubting Śrenika's firmness of faith, takes the form of a novice catching fish; Śrenika hinders him.' Cf. also related passages in the Manipati-carita (MPC) by an anonymous author (eighth or ninth century) and the one by Haribhadra (twelfth century) (MPCH), translated by R. WILLIAMS (1959). The term upaguhana, however, is not explicitly mentioned in these texts, but the underlying message is 'to prevent a scandal of the Jina's teaching' as will be seen below (footnote 9). Stanzas 415-416 of MPC read: 'Suddenly in a pond at the edge of the road to the city he saw an acolyte catching fish and had him called to his presence, saying: "I will give you something to make up for this, cease from this evil task. Stanzas 124-128 of the MPCH: At a fitting time the king set out for his own city, and by a divine illusion beheld a muni catching fish. The king said: "What are you doing?" The muni replied: "Let it be evident to you." So saying he cast his net into the water for fish. The king said: "What is this on your lap?" The other replied: "The monk's broom." When the king asked: "What is achieved by this?", the muni replied: "Jivas are preserved." "Then why do you kill fish?" asked the king. The muni replied: "In the bazaar I shall buy a blanket with them." The king indicated the reason for not taking life and bestowed a blanket on him."