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JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXVI, No. 3 January, 2002
the main thoroughfare where the mass of dust had been made even by the breeze blowing gently, he made footprints of the wolf on the mass of dust, on both sides of his own body, by pressing upon the three fingers joined together of both his hands. Then in the morning, finding those footprints, a large crowd gathered on the main thoroughfare. The men of great wisdom who also arrived there said to the people: 'As the footprints of the wolf cannot be explained otherwise (it is to be concluded that) at night some wolf must have come here from the forest.'
So the man, finding them speaking such terms, said to his wife : 'Oh! Blessed one! My beloved one! Look at, consider, the case of these footprints of the wolf!'
This explains the verse in all respects. It should be noted that S. speaks of one footprint only (as the verse employs the singular form, vṛkapadam), but G. refers to the footprints (vṛkapadani) made by the husband. But the reading that G. adopted contained abahuśrutāḥ, 'not vastly learned'. However, he also knew of the variant reading, bahusrutäh. Thus he wrote:
If the reading accepted is 'what the vastly learned ones say', etc. then the implication is to be explained as, 'they are vastly learned only according to popular belief (and not in reality).'
S. explained the significance of the verse as follows:
What is the implication? Just as her skilled lover fulfilled her desire for seeing the footprint of a wolf-she, being an artless lady, was unaware of the real fact-by deceiving her only with the mark made by his fingers, so also these people-knaves in the garb of the pious, and bent upon only cheating others- and ordinary people, by somehow convincing them of the infallibility of certain inferences and verbal testimonies, into the dilemma of what is to be eaten and what is not, who is fit for copulation and who is unfit, what is desirable and what is to be avoided, etc., by enticing them away with the hope of enjoying pleasures to be attained after reaching heaven, etc. and produce blind faith in pious acts.
The two versions (S.'s and G.'s) differ on a number of points, viz. (a) S. refers to the parable as 'an illustration' (dṛṣṭänta), G. calls it 'a traditional story' (sampradaya) as well as 'an introduction (upadarsana) to a dṛṣṭānta.'
(b) S. does not refer to the man as a nāstika as G. does, he calls him 'a skilled lover' (vidagdha ballabhah).
(c) S. does not mention any occasion for drawing the wolf's footprint other than the wife's interest in seeing it.
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