Jain Journal 1968 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 16

106
JAIN JOURNAL
The boy-ascetic then went on to describe the episodes in the reign of the new king Yasodhara. The king got up in the morning with the recitations by the bards. He went to the court to dispense justice with the help of learned and impartial judges. He had his council of ministers. He received reports from the secret police in which none was spared. Once the king received very elaborate report about the misdeeds of one of his ministers who not only violated caste rules but also indulged in all sorts of vices. The king often summoned rival princes to accept his suzerainty and received envoys coming to his court. As a patron of art he witnessed dances in the company of connoisseurs of art ; he participated in philosophical discussions and discussed verses from the Arthaśāstra. Once he wounded the vanity of a self-conceited and tactless poet. Stick in hand, the king often trained the elephants and reviewed the entire army consisting of regiments from all parts of the country on the eve of expeditions.
Nor was the king callous to the beauty of women. He enjoyed it to the full in a pleasure-garden called Madanamadavinoda and indulged in water-sports in a hall fitted with mechanical showers (yantradhārāgrha) and other similar devices like mechanical clouds, water gushing out of the mouths of wild animals in stones, currents of water emitting from artificial lotus-stalks, sprays coming out of the mouths of artificial elephants, water let loose from the mouths of artificial monkeys placed in creepery recesses, etc., etc. But the most wonderous of all was a mechanical device in maiden form which discharged streams of liquid sandal when pressed on different parts of the body :
haste sprstā nakhantaih kucakalasatate cücukaprakramena bakre netrāntarāvyām sirasi kubalayenābatansārpitena sronyām kānciguņāgraistibalișu ca punarnābhirandhreņa dhīrā yantrastri yatra citram bikirati sisirāscandanasyandadhārāh
The king was a great lover of nature enjoying the beauty of the clouds from a palace on the slopes of a pleasure-hill during the rainy season. In spring, he participated in the festivities of the season and worshipped the god of love. This was followed by the official worship of the goddess Aparajita on the mahā-nayami day and then followed the dipotsava or the festival of lights.
One night the king visited his consort Amrtamati with a view to spending the night in her company. About midnight, the king who was not fast asleep saw his consort slipping out of the bed, discarding her own garments and jewellery and putting on the dress of the maid-servant.