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The Life and Stories of the Jaina Saviour Parsvanatha
DIGEST
(based on Bhavadeva Suri's Parsvanatha Carita)
MAURICE BLOOMFIELD Baltimore 1919
Sarga 1: The brothers Kamatha and Marubhuti
In those days there was a city called Potana. There ruled magnificently king Aravinda with his queen Dharini, endowed with every womanly virtue. He had a wise Purohita, Visvabhuti, whose virtuous wife Anuddhara bore him two sons, Kamatha and Marubhuti. Kamatha's wife was Varuna; Marubhuti's Vasumdhara. They passed their lives in the pleasures of the senses. Visvabhuti in time, made over the care of his house to his sons, lived in fast under direction of a holy teacher, pondered with his whole soul the mantra of the Pañcaparameṣṭhinamaskara, and abondoning his body, was reborn as a god in the Saudharma heaven. Also his bereaved wife Anuddhara, desolated over the loss of her husband, thinking that for her there was no further happiness practised profound penance and died.
Kamatha and Marubhuti performed in sorrow the funeral rites for their parents. Then the great sage Hariscandra, compassionate and generous, arrived in a park outside the city. The citizens, singing songs of praise, swarmed about him like bees, attracted by the fragrance of his virtues. The two brothers also went there anxious to dispel their grief for the loss of their parents through the consolations of religion.
Through the influence of sage Hariscandra, many people were converted, among others Marubhuti, who was weaned from passion, devoted himself to the law, and practised many virtues. Kamatha, whose heart was not pierced by the sage's instruction, remained unenlightened. Owing to Marubhuti's chastity his wife Vasumdhara became love-mad, and, after first repelling Kamatha's advances, finally submitted to his unbridled lust. Blinded by love they constantly indulged in incestuous adultery. Varuna, Kamatha's wife, observing, reported the affair to Marubhuti. There upon he went to a distant village but returned in the guise of a holy begger (kārpațika), and asked Kamatha for shelter. The latter assigned to him a corner of his house, where
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| SR No. | 520021 |
| Book Title | Jain Journal 1971 01 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Jain Bhawan Publication |
| Publisher | Jain Bhawan Publication |
| Publication Year | 1971 |
| Total Pages | 54 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India |
| File Size | 3 MB |