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DHARMAPARIKSHA
DHARAMAPARIKSHA' OF AMITAGATI In the collection of Manuscripts of the Digambara sect of Jainas, we have a copy of a work of Amitagati not known before, the Dharmapariksha, as well as one of his Subhasitaratnasamdoha. The date of this last is known to be 1050 of the Vikrama era, while that of the new work is given at the end to be 1070, corresponding to 1014 A. D.
In this work, Amitagati represents a demi-god (Vidyadhara) of the name of Manovega, son of a prince of demi-gods of the name of Ajatasatru, to be a devout follower of the Jaina faith. He had a friend of the name of Pavanavega, who, howeever, was not a Jaina. Manovega ardently desired that his friend should be of the same faith with himself; and while moving in his aerial car and thinking in what way he should be converted, his car stumbled when he reached Ujjayini. Then getting down near the great garden of the city, he found a famous Jaina saint of the name of Jinamati discoursing on religion. At the end of the discourse, which is given at some length, the Vidyadhara asked the saint whether his friend would ever become a believer, and was told that he would, if Manovega went to Puspapura with him, showed him the contradictions and discrepancies in the doctrines of other sects by conversing with the followers of these, and instructed him by arguments and illustrations.
Manovega accordingly went with his friend to Puspapura. The method he follows is, on each occasion, to assume a different form, to go to the place in that form, beat a drum, and sit on what is called the 'golden' seat. People of all sorts gather round him, he shows them something which is out of the ordinary course of things, or tells a story with many inconsistencies and improbabilities, and when they raise questions he asks them whether, in their own religious works and beliefs, there are not things equally out of the way and equally inconsistent and improbable. After they admit that there are, he turns to his friend and calls his attention to these faults in the ordinary religious works of the Brahmans, and thus endeavours gradually to convert him to his faith.
Thus, at the first visit to Puspapura, the two friends appear as youn, men adorned with golden ornaments and gems, and still bearing heaps of hay and faggots of firewood to sell. The people asked them the reason of this incongruity, whereupon Manovega, after telling them a good many stories of unthinking persons who do not consider a thing properly or impartially, to induce them to give a calm consideration to his observations, asks them in return how it was that the Great Visnu-the Creator, Protector, ana Destroyer of the world, by whose mercy men attain to eternal bliss, and who pervades everything, and is eternal and purs, became a cowherd in Nanda's Gokula, and looked after the cows and played with the cowherds; how it was that he went to Duryodhana as a messenger at the bidding of the son of Pandu like an ordinary foot-soldier; how it was that on the battlefield he became
1. R. G. Bhandarkar Report on Search for Sambat 1884-87 Concealed words of Shri RG
Bhandarkar, Vol. II, Phone 1928, PP. 308. Cs.
