Jain Journal 1986 10

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

Page 30

JAIN JOURNAL
their failure in enforcing the sentence for which they would be sentenced to death by the king. Kovalan took pity on the policemen and taking a sword from one of them cut his throat and fell down dead. It was a miracle of Kannaki that made the swords blunt which could not severe the head of her husband. Kannaki brought to life her dear husband and making him sit on her laps pacified him with words of wisdom. She expounded to him the doctrines of karma of Jain philosophy and said that his present agonies and sufferings were reactions to his sinful deeds committed in his previous life. Because of his vinaipayan, the law of karma--action and reaction, he was beheaded for his sins committed in his previous life and for his benevolent deeds he could marry her. Now that he has reaped the results of both his good and bad karmas, nothing is left for his instant rebirth and therefore, he would ascend to the high heaven and enjoy happiness and peace for thousands of years. Looking at the shining face of his faithful wife, Kovalan breathed his last to be mourned by his parents and Madhavi, his daughter, a large circle of friends and relatives. Kannaki hurried to the palace and saw the king. She told him that the young man who was beheaded last night was her husband and the anklet belonged to her. She asked the king to produce her confiscated anklet and also the anklet of his queen. Both were brought and Kannaki broke her anklet with her hand and several precious pearls fell down from it. She broke the queen's anklet and not a single pearl fell from it. The queen stood nearby and was convinced that the anklet from which pearls fell belonged to the grief stricken young woman and the second without pearls belonged to her. The king was perplexed and lamented for beheading an innocent man. In remorse, he lost his heart and died on the spot. The queen seeing her husband dead wept bitterly and she also fell down and died instantly. King Nedumcelian who died in remorse was a Jaina and a benevolent ruler of the Pandyan kingdom. He would not have died on the spot for beheading an innocent man had it not been for the fact that he was a pious and righteous person. The queen was also a Jaina and she was a chaste and faithful wife. The king was a valiant man held by the people as a hero who protected the freedom of the Pandyan Country. He is acclaimed in the Samgham annals in such glorifying terms of 'Arya Patai Kadanta Nedumcelain' the king who defeated the Aryan army in battle. The three Tamil kingdoms of South India in the early centuries of the Christian era were independent territories from Aryan domination contrarary to the views of historians that Aryans conquered India as early as 2000 to 2500 B.C. But there were Arya Brahmins in South India in the second century A.D. Some historians have disputed Aryan conquest of India, and in their view it is purely a mythological story.
Kannaki ran to the jewellers' market after seeing the sudden death