Bruhat Katha kosha

Author(s): Harishen Acharya,
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Page 60

INTRODUCTION
any attachment, even for a second, towards kinsmen a relatives, because it is they that become enemies like that mother in the case of Bambhadatta (M. 376). The pupils of the Arhat [Mahāvīra] were burnt by Mankhali' with his penancial lustre; being thus burnt, they attained the highest object (S. 88). The queen Miyāvai destroys within a moment the Karman of her past lives by Vandana and other rites (Bh. 50). Possession or attachment is dangerous: the saint Meyajja, along with the Krauñca bird (?), was oppressed by a house-holder when the wealth was really taken by his son'. Out of sheer compassion he did not expose the Krauñca bird which was a culprit; and when his eyes were pierced, he remained firm like the Mandara mountain (Bh. 133, M. 425-6). That wicked Mentha, who was sent to the gallows for theft, offered salutation to the Jina [ at the moment of his death] and was born as a Yakṣa, Kamaladala by name (Bh. 78). Thirtytwo members of the club Laliyaghada at Kosambi faced courageously the flood of the river, submitted themselves to Prayopagamana and attained the highest object (S. 79-80, M. 480?). The saint Vaïrarisi had a band of five hundred pupils; he stood courageously in the sun on a slab of stone performing his penance; tender as he was, his body melted as it were like a lump of ghee; the place where he was worshipped by gods is known as Rahavattagiri; and the mountain where Indra honoured him became famous as Kunjarāvatta (M. 468-73). A single lie vitiates many truthful words: by telling a lie but once Vasu went to hell (Bh. 101). The fourth sovereign [Sanamkumăra] suffered from sixteen diseases for a period of seven thousand years, but he tolerated all of them (M. 410-11). After a fast for four months, on the day of fast-breaking, when he was steady in his vow and while he was coming down the mount, the saint Sukosala was strangled by his mother, now born as a tigress, at Cittakuḍa on the Muggillagiri ; he tolerated patiently all that and attained the highest object (Bh. 161, M. 466-67, S. 63-64). The ignorant cow-boy uttered piously the Namaskāramantra, and was born consequently as a merchant-prince Sudamsana at Campă (Bh. 81). The monks from the low caste, Somadatta etc., of Kosambi, were thrown into the sea when they had submitted themselves to Prayopagamana (M. 493). Due to pure Samyaktva, i. e. Right faith, though not accompanied by conduct, Harikulaprabhu, Śrenika and others were destined to be born as Tīrthakaras (Bh. 67). Sodasa suffered being a slave of taste, and the king Somaliya, of the sense of contact (Bh. 145-6). The above survey is partial and does not include all the references from the Païnnas. There are some Kathanakas which are anonymously introduced (M. 424, 510 etc.), and there are others which give some names without sufficient details (M. 433). I have tried to note the contents of the verses with utmost caution, because it is difficult to interpret them without already having a close acquaintance with the Kathānakas. In some
1
Cf. Bhagavati, Sataka XV.
2 Possibly there are two versions of the same story.
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