Jain Story Book

Author(s): Manu Doshi
Publisher: Manu Doshi

Page 12

In ancient time, Mithia was the capital city of Videh. Long back there ruled a king named Padmarath. He had a beautiful queen named Padmamala. She was issueless and earnestly longed for getting a son. Once the king had been to a forest. There he noticed a newly born child lying under the shade of a tree. As he drew near, he found that it was a lovely boy. His handsomeness attracted the attention of the king. He picked him up and bringing him to the palace he handed over the boy to the queen. She became very happy to get the boy. She decided to rear him as her own son and named him Nami. The authority of the king expanded on all sides after getting the boy. The king attributed that fortune to the lucky boy and brought him up in all the pleasures and luxuries. The boy slowly began to grow. At the age of six he was sent to school where he learnt all kinds of arts and crafts. In due course he grew up to be a strong, well educated and obedient youth. The king was pleased with him in every respect and got him married at the appropriate time.
Once there came to the city a learned Ächärya. The king went to his assembly for listening to his sermon. On hearing that sermon he developed detachment for the worldly life. He therefore crowned Nami as the king of Mithila and he himself became a possessionless monk.
Nami turned out to be a strong and capable ruler. He built up a strong army that consisted of mighty elephants and strong horses. Equipped with that, he expanded his kingdom on all sides by subduing the neighboring states. He was also very benevolent and ruled with equity and justice. He took all possible steps to make his subjects prosperous and happy. His reign was very popular and he became a well known ruler.
In his army there was a well built, tall elephant which was found intelligent and successfully carried out even the tough commands. The king was very proud of owning him. Once the elephant got out of control and escaped from the yard. As he ran towards the forest, the keepers pursued him with all possible haste. The elephant therefore had to run ahead. He then turned towards Sudarshanpur which was the capital city of a neighboring state. King Chandrayash was ruling over there. He had come to know of the escape of the elephant which he also coveted to get. He therefore sent his experts to control the elephant. The animal was exhausted of wandering and hunger by the time he entered the territory of Sudarshanpur. The keepers of Sudarshanpur could therefore easily subdue him.
As Nami learnt about the capture of his elephant, he sent a message to Chandrayash to return the elephant to Mithila. Chandraysh was however proud of his own strength and refused to comply. Thereupon Nami took a large contingent of army and invaded Sudarshanpur. Chandrayash knew that his army was not a match for the invading force in an open combat. His capital had however strong built up defence mechanism. He therefore closed the gates of his fortified city and confined himself within. From there he successfully resisted the formidable invading army and prevented it from entering the city. Nami tried his best to force open the fortress but the defending party did not yield for a long time.
Once, while Nami was sitting in the camp planning his strategy, he noticed a venerable aged nun coming to his camp. He rose from his seat and welcomed her. Then he requested her to let him know if he could be of any service. The nun said that she had been there to prevent the fratricidal war in which he had engaged himself. Nami was amazed to hear those words, because he knew that Chndrayash was in no way related to him. The nun however insisted that Chnadrayash was his brother and asked Nami to give up the war. Nami thought that she being a nun might be considering every one as brother to others. He said that he respected her wishes and appreciated the sense of her affection for every one. He however said that his giving up the war would be treated as retreat and he could not afford to stop the war. The nun said that Chandrayash was his blood brother and she did not want the two brothers to fight for the sake of an elephant. As Nami could not believe what she said, the nun described the following tale.