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RELIGION
239 rôle of martyrs. The Jātakas and Kautilya's Arthaśāstra record just a few typical instances of martyrđom suffered in the past. Ajjuna, king of the Kekayas, caused annoyance to the sago, Gotama. Dandaki, king of Dandaka, insulted Kisavaccha, the guileless ascetic. King Mejjha ill-treated Mātanga, the far-famed sage. The Andhaka-Veņhu youths of Dväravati roughly handled Kanha-Dipāyana and ultimately put him to death. Kalābu, king of Benares, tortured an ascetic who was a preachor of patience and forbearance. Nāļikira (or Nālikera), king of Kalinga, cut the body of an ascetic into pieces and offered his limbs to dogs to devour. In one instance, a king pierecd a harmless ascetic with an arrow under the misapprehension that he stood in his way as ill-luck and spoiled his game. Even in historical times, the Buddha's great disciple and powerful popular preacher, Moggallāna, was surrounded and killed by brigands (alleged to have been employed by his rivals in other sects).
There were two effective ways of checking the tyrants and sinners: the pronouncement of a curse and the invention of the stories of terrible sufferings in different purgatories. But the Indian ascetics also invented the stories of a happy and glorious life in different heavens to induce the people to lead a moral and pious
