Indian Antiquary Vol 42

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 157

MAY, 1913,]
TWO JAINA VERSIONS OF SOLOMON'S JUDGMENT
(a) The version in the commentary on the Nandisutta:
A certain merchant had two wives: the one had a son, the other was barren. The latter, however, also took good care of the child, for which reason the child was not able to distinguish: "This is my mother, not that." Now the merchant, together with his wives and his son, went to another country-where the tirthakara Sumatisvâ min was to be born-and there just upon his arrival he died. And between the two wives a quarrel arose. The first one was saying: "Mine is thi. child, so it is I that am the mistress of the house." The second one was saying: "It is I." Then there was made a complaint at the royal court of justice, but nevertheless the question could not be disentangled. At last the thing came to the ears of the queen Mangalâ, the mother in whose womb was staying the venerable tirthakara Sumatisvâmin. The queen had the two co-wives summoned to her presence and then pronounced sentence: "After some days a son will be born from me. When he will have grown up and will be sitting at the fect of the present king Aśoka, he will decide your dispute. So till then eat and drink without any distinction." The barren woman accepted the sentence and the queen made out thereby
This is not the mother of the child", and reproached her and made the other one the mistress of the house.
149
(b) The version in the Antarakatha
samgraha :
A certain merchant had two wives: the one had a son, the other had not. The latter, however, also took good care of the child and the child was not able to distinguish: "This is my mother, this is not:" Once on a time the merchant, together with his wives and his son, went to another country and just upon his arrival (there) he died. Then between those two quarrel arose. One was saying: "Mine is this child", and the other was saying the same. One was saying: "It is I that am the mistress of the house", and the other was saying: "It is I". Thus a quarrel having ensued between the two, and a complaint was made at the royal court of justice. The minister thereon gave an order to his men: "Here! First divide the whole property. After dividing it, cut the child into twe paies with a saw and, having done that, give one part to the one and the other to the other." Thereupon the mother of the child. having heard the minister's sentence, equal to a thunderbolt surrounded by thousand flames suddenly falling on her head, with her heart all trembling as if it had been pierced by a crooked dart, with difficulty managed to speak: "Al sire! Great minister! It is not mine: this child! The money is of no use to me! Let the child be the son of that woman and let her be the mistress of the house. As for myself, n matter if I drag out an indigent life in strange houses though it be from a distance, yet I shall see that child living and by that much 1 shall attain the object of my life. Whereas. without my son, even now the whole living world is dead to me." The other one uttered no word. Then the minister, having seen the distress of the former, said: "To this one pertains the child, not to that one", and made her the mistress of the house and reproached the other one.
One will see at once that the two versions above nearly coincide in all particulars excepting as to the person that is made to decide the question and in the pretended sentence pronounced to penetrate the truth. Of the two discrepancies the former is of much the less importance, in that the story, being an example of keen discernment, was naturally fitted for being ascribed to any wise person, whose sagacity was to be illustrated. But the discrepancy concerning the form of the sentence in the two accounts is of greater value, and in this particular case the version given by the commentator of the Nandisutta is all the more interesting, from the point of view of comparative folklore, the m'e widely it deviates from the version in the Bible, which has been faithfully reproduced by Rajasekhara in his Antarakathasamgraha. We shall return to this later on.
2. I road: तावता च कृत्यमात्मन: प्रपत्स्ये. Signor Pulle's reading तावतावकुत्यमात्मानं प्रपत्स्ये meaning to me.
boa no