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sight. He was a man who attained fame in everything he did, and he made a name everywhere. He was the administrator of justice, the man at the helm of the statecraft, and he personally looked after the kingdom, its administration, the treasury, grannery, army, vehicles, the city and the harem (166).
According to the Jaina belief, Abhayakumāra was nominated by Srenika Bhambhasāra as his minister(167). As a minister, he was like a single (unfailing) solution in all the problems with which the king was faced. It was he who contrived to fulfil the desires of Queen Dhārini, mother of Meghakumāra, during her pregnancy, and that of Queen Celaņā, mother of Kūņika, by dint of his sharp intellect. Even the marriage between his step-mother Celana and King Sreņika was wittily arranged by him (168). For his fine intellect, Abhayakumāra became a famous man in the Jaina tradition. There are many episodes on record which are a proof of his great intellect.
On many occasions, Abhayakumāra averted political crises. Once Candapradyota, King of Ujjain, along with his 14 allies, launched an attack on Rajagrha. Abhayakumār! had some gold pieces under the ground beforehand where the encounter between the two armies was about to take place. When Candapradyota besiezed the city, Abhayakumāra sent a note to him as follows:
"I submit as your well-wisher that all your friends have now become the allies of King Srenika. ,They are about to tie you up very soon and hand you over to Srenika. They have already received huge quantity of gold from him. You will find a corroboration of this if you dig the ground on which stands your army".
When Candapradyota had the ground dug up, he found gold pieces buried everywhere. This made him nervous, and he fled back to Ujjain(169).
There is no similarity in the two accounts about any episode in the life of Abhayakumara, except a minor one. This is as follows. According to the Buddhist tradition, on
