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JAINISM AND KARNĀTAKA CULTURE
by Somadeva. It is related therein that a prince, Yesodhara by name, was once stricken with great remorse for the delinquency of his wife. He thought of renouncing his kingdom and becoming an ascetic. His mother, seeing his malady, proposed that the offence could be atoned for by performing a huge sacrifice involving the slaughter of numerous animals. The noble prince protested, saying that violence to life was the greatest of sins. Moreover, he was actuated with a high sense of duty and declared :
राशिधमिणि धमिधाः पापे पापाः समेसमाः।
TIFTİ Saada qur TFT TOT 931 01 " If the king be righteous, they are righteous; if he be wicked, they are wicked; if he be neither good nor wicked, such also are they; they walk in the way of the king: as the king is, so are the people."
The king's plea was, of course, that Ahimsa was the highest of principles. The poet has cleverly, but with great truth, represented the mother as quoting Manusmrti wherein it is stated,
यज्ञार्थ पशवः सृष्टाः स्वयमेव स्वयंभुवा।
THÌ E i FATTE atst: 11 V. 39. “ Animals have been created for sacrifice, by the self-existing (Brahma) himself; hence, the killing of animals in sacrifice, does not involve any sin.”
The king in vain argued against this, but for all his pains the mother thought, STEI IT a pigri Traala fata: gaurea.
My son is blown about by the wind of Jaina doctrine.' Finally, Yaśodhara assented to the sacrifice of an effigy instead of the live animal itself. But as a consequence of this symbolical violence, both of them had to undergo suffering in a round of numerous transmigrations.24 The moral is obvious, and it illustrates the extreme insistence of the Jainas on the principle of Ahimsa, no less than the theory of karma. The contrast
24
Yalastilakā.camps ; cf. Peterson, op. cit. IV, pp. 42–44.
