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A CRITICAL STUDY OF PAUMACARIYAN
the righteous and the wicked respectively; (3) Celestial being's assistance to their friends or their causing obstruction to their enemies of this life or the previous life and (4) work of the evil spirits.
1. Supernatural occurrences connected with the life of great persons :The PCV reveals that many incidents in the life of great persons are hailed with some supernatural occrrences or with the pouring of flowers and the beating of divine drums by the celestial beings.
Hanu's birth (17.90) was hailed with favourable phenomenal occurrences. On the occasion of Rāma's success in stringing the bow (28. 106-121) there occurred many phenomenal changes such as the trembling of mountains, agitating of the sea, reversing of the currents of the rivers etc.
Celestial beings then poured flowers and beat divine drums. Similarly the occasions like the battle between Ráma and Rāvana (71.20), the reunion of Rama and Sita at Lanka (71.20), the triumph of Muni Vali in subduing Ravana (9.80) on the Kailasa mountain, Lakṣmaṇa's success in withstanding the Saktis hurled by king Aridamana (38.42), queen Simhika's success in proving that she was chaste (22.69), Bharata's intiation into monkkood (83.7) and the success of monks in observing meditation (50,3,7) or penances (117.2) were graced with pouring of flowers, sounding of divine drums and hailing words from celestial beings.
2. Disposition of celestial beings towards righteous and wicked persons :The PCV reveals that those who were righteous or of irreproa chable conduct or were devoted to the religion of the Jina were assisted by the celestial beings in critical times. The converting of the fire-pit into a pond of water on the occasion of Sītā's fireordeal (102.19.33), the advance information given to Satrughna about the coming calamity on Mathurā (87.17), the conjuring up of Rāmapuri for Rāma in the forest (35.25-36), sentinels guarding the temple in which Rāvana was meditating (67.49f) and saving a mónk from a calamity (5.231) were the works of divine beings for assisting the righteous persons.
Those who were wicked and disrespectful to the righteous ones and the true religion were punished by the celestial beings or some untoward phenomenal occurrences damaged their life. The absorption of king Vasu by the earth on account of telling a lie (11.34) and the paralysing of two Brahmins (105.65) who wanted to kill monks are such examples.
