Book Title: History of Rastrakutas of Malkhed and Jainism
Author(s): Nagarajaiah Hampa
Publisher: Ankita Pustak

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 207
________________ 146 / The Rāştrakūtas and Jainism Yaśasvati and Sunanda. Bharata, the first of the twelve cakravartis and Bāhubali, the first of the 24 Kāmadēvas, were his eldest and elder sons. Brāhmi and Sundari were his daughters. He made his children proficient in various arts and science, himself taught the art of writing to Brāhmi, and from her originated the Brāhmi-script; to Sundari, his second daughter, he taught the science of arithmetics. 5.6.1.9. Thus, the first Jina set a model of an ideal father in giving good education to the daughters also. Ādideva, the hero leading a life of pleasure in the company of his consorts, had spent his ten previous births and in the eleventh birth as the monarch of a splendid kingdom, while merrily viewing an exhibition of dancing performance of the celestial dancer Nilānjanā, all of a sudden the dancer disappeared as it was the end of her life. Albeit Indra, who had designed the performance to evoke the feelings of detachment from the terrestrial interests in Purudēva, immediately created another Nilānjanā to continue the performance uninterrupted. None in the audience could make out the difference except the intended Purunātha who got the clue and decided to relinquish the profane life on the realisation of the essential ephemerality, disillusionment overtook him. He was shaken from his complacency by this incident, pregnant with deep significance. He saw in a moment's flash the hollowness of worldy life and the wisdom of seeking release from its bonds. Purudēva wasted no time and immediately swung into action, installed his sons on the respective throne, sought the peace of forest and penance and attained the eternal salvation in the end. 5.6.2. Pampa has handled a Jaina purāņic theme in a very dignified manner. He was gifted with the required literary capacity and the basic knowledge in the field of religious literature. Thus Adipurāņam is marked by all the distinguished qualities of great poetry and furnished the Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374