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सचित्र उत्तराध्ययन सूत्र in
DVAVIMSH ADHYAYAN :
RATHANEMIYA
Foreview
As this chapter mainly narrates the story of the Yadav prince Rathanemi, it is titled Rathanemiya.
The episode from Rathanemi's life narrated in this chapter is as follows
In ancient times king Samudravijaya of Yadu clan ruled the city of Soriyapur in the Brij area (present day Sauripur, near Agra in U.P.). Samudravijaya was the eldest among ten brothers and Vasudeva was the youngest. All the ten brothers were highly valorous and were popularly called Dasharha as a group.
According to ancient scriptures, at that time Soriyapur had a tradition of two rulers. There were two ruling groups called Andhak and Vrishni. Samudravijaya was the leader of Andhak group and Vasudeva was that of Vrishni group. As such they both were called kings.
The chief queen of Samudravijaya was Shivaadevi. She had four sons-Arishtanemi, Rathanemi, Satyanemi and Dridhanemi.
Vasudeva had two queens-Rohini and Devaki. Rohini's son was Balarama and that of Devaki was Shrikrishna.
Shrikrishna had killed Kamsa, the ruler of Mathura city and son-in-law of Prativaasudeva (a legendary evil king who is antihero as opposed to Vaasudeva) named Jarasandh. This act enraged Jarasandh. He decided to annihilate the Yadav clan. Afraid of his attack all Yadavs, including Samudravijaya, left the Brij area and migrated to the western coast. There they founded Dvaraka city and established a vast empire.
The eldest son of Samudravijaya was Arishtanemi. He was very valorous, extremely strong, handsome and charming. However, he had no interest in mundane indulgences. But Samudravijaya and his queen Shivaadevi wanted their son to get married.
When Shrikrishna insisted for marriage Arishtanemi remained silent. Taking his silence to be consent, Shrikrishna found a very beautiful girl, Raajimati, from the Bhoj clan and took out Arishtanemi in an elaborate marriage procession.
On way to the marriage pavilion Arishtanemi, the groom, riding an elephant, saw many animals and birds in a yard. When he heard the wailing of the encaged animals, Arishtanemi asked the mahout about the reason for that. The mahout informed that many of the guests in the procession were meat-eaters. The encaged animals were to be slaughtered for their food. These animals and birds are screaming and wailing out of fear of death.
