Jain Legend Vol 2

Author(s): Hastimal Maharaj, Shuganchand Jain, P S Surana
Publisher: Hastimal Maharaj Shugan C Jain P S Surana

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its own. Be it small or big, the way aka ra handled the stately issues, reflected his vibrant personality.
Seeing the impressive splendor of aka ra, a scholar named Vararuchi started feeling jealous of him. Gradually, Vararuchi became a strong opponent of aka ra. With the intention of creating an image for himself in the hearts of the people and the king, through his profound learning, Vararuchi recited novel poems in praise of the king every day. By doing so, he thought of gaining prestige and amassing wealth. But as aka ra did not utter even one word in praise of Vararuchi, Nanda too neither appreciated his poetry nor offered any gifts. Consequently, Vararuchi understood the situation. After a lot of deliberation, he decided to impress Lak m Dev, the literary expert wife of aka ra, with his poetry. With the elegance of his poetic words, Vararuchi pleased Lak m Dev and appealed her to recommend Minister aka ra for compliments for his poetry in Nanda's court. Subsequently Lak m Dev requested her husband to praise Vararuchi's poetry in the court and see that he gets some financial benefit. As insisted by his learned wife, the next day
aka ra praised the poetry of Vararuchi in the court. As a result, Nanda was pleased and presented Vararuchi 108 gold coins in appreciation of his poetry.
Everyday Vararuchi used to recite his novel poems in the court of Nanda and would in return immediately get 108 gold coins from the treasury of the Magadha King Nanda. This continued for a long time.
Prime Minister aka ra felt the need to curtail the expense of such a large sum from the coffers every day. So one day he told Nanda that the poems recited by Vararuchi were not his original compositions, instead he was presenting the works of some other poets. He further added that those poems can even be recited by his seven daughters Yak, Yak adinn etc. and the same can be demonstrated the next morning itself.
King Nand was quite surprised at this. The next morning the seven daughters of Minister aka ra were made to sit behind a curtain in the court. Vararuchi recited 108 new verses in the court in praise of Mah r ja Nanda. The entire court was surprised when Yak , the eldest daughter of Minister aka ra, recited all the 108 verses that were recited by Vararuchi. Then, one after the other, Yak adinn , Bh t , Bh tadinn,
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