Jain Journal 1969 01

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

Page 30

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JAIN JOURNAL
his soul, he has been wandering from village to village, from town to town, from province to province, working out his karma by severe austerities.
Stories about this ascetic with a glowing body spreads everywhere in Kausambi. All the inhabitants of the town become alarmed and concerned. King Satanika's queen-consort, Mrgavati, of matchless beauty and lotus fragrance, also hears this news and is struck with horror. She has it proclaimed in the town that the mistress of every house must prepare various kinds of foods and be ready to offer them to the ascetic; and she herself, ordering royal dishes of diverse delicacies., waits to break the fast of the ascetic with her own hands. But in vain goes all this preparation. Day after day the ascetic returns without accepting food anywhere.
The great town of Campa, the capital of Anga, is very ancient and prosperous. Its wide thoroughfares, adorned with rows of shops, which are full of varieties of tempting commodities, attract customers from far and wide. All the four sides of the town resound with the hum of the merchants, hailing from far and near. Local traders with their huge ships laden with various merchandise sail through the great river Ganges to different countries on the other side of the ocean for the sake of commerce. Under the benign rule of king Dadhivahana, the people live a happy and carefree life, engaged in their own vocations. All of a sudden tidings reach the town of Campa that Satanika, the king of Kausambi, is coming to attack it with an immense army. The main entrance to the town is at once closed. King Dadhivahana collects as large an army as he could and prepares to withstand this unexpected invasion. But he is defeated and killed in the battle. Under Satanika's order the inner apartments of the palace of Campa are sacked when a soldier of Kausambi is about to carry away the queen Dharini and the princess Vasumati. Dharini escapes from the humiliation by commiting suicide but the soldier catches hold of Vasumati and takes her to Kasaumbi.
At a cross-road of Kausambi the soldier sells Vasumati to a rich merchant, named Dhanavaha, who brings her to his house as a slave girl. But charmed with Vasumati's beauty and modesty, the merchant rears her as his own daughter and calls her Candana.
Once the merchant goes to another place for three days on a piece of business. Taking advantage of his absence, his wife shaves Candana's head, chains her feet, confines her in a dark road-side cell on the lowest floor of the house and goes away to her father's place.