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162
JASAHARACARIU
and went to meet Angāraka who, before dying, kissed her and while kissing, cut off her lower lip. Now Viravati returned home covering her face, and raised a cry that her husband cut off her lip. The king thereupon ordered him to be killed, but a traveller who had watched the conduct of Viravati the previous night, saved him by revealing to the king and the people the wicked conduct of the woman, and convincing the people by showing to them the piece of the lower lip of the lady inside the mouth of the impaled thief. 9. 17. Sahiņāna, Sk. Sābhijñāna.
9. 17-18. It appears that the thief cut off with his sword the fingers of the lady which were lying under the tree, while the lower lip remained in his mouth.
10. 1-2. These two lines refer to the story of queen Rakta who, for the sake of her lame lover, threw her husband Devarati, king of Ayodhya, into the stream of the river. This queen Raktā, as the story goes, was attached to a lame gardener. Finding the king a nuisance, she got a garland woven by means of a fine iron thread, put this garland on the neck of Devarati, strangled him and threw him into the river. 10. 3-17. Abhayaruci lectures on the worthlessness of the pleasures of senses. 10. 13. The Isasihi is the fire of jealousy.
11. A lecture on the nature of human body which is here said to be a bundle of misery and impurities and diseases. 11. 11. Pacchiu Sk. pathya means wholesome food and drink. The line means that human body is subject to the attack of leprosy even if man takes wholesome food and drink.
12. Jasahara was disgusted with the conduct of his queen and also with the worldly life, and thinks he should become an ascetic, but in the morning he felt he should not do so immediately as his resolve to become an ascetic would be regarded by people as due to some disagreeable things in the harem; so he took to normal life for the time being.
13. The king declared his intention in the court to his mother to place his son Jasamai or Jasa vai on the throne in order to respect, as he said, a bad dream which he saw the previous night.
14. Jasahara's mother proposes to him that the effects of an evil dream can be nullified by offering living beings as victims to the goddess; but he shows his disapproval of killing a living being.
17. 10–11. The king says to his mother:—"If by killing animals as victims merit is obtained, then one should salute a hunter or a butcher in preference to a monk."
19. 4. The king drew out his sword in order to cut off his own head, at the thought that he was not able to persuade his mother. But the mother immediately came round and suggested that an inanimate victim should be offered to the goddess to which Ja sahara gave his consent by silence. The mother thereupon asked the statuemaker to bring a cock made of flour.
22. 9-10. Queen Amptamati says to Jasahara that in case she does not accompany him to the forest, people will ridicule her by pointing their fingers to her youth and therefore she would like even death in his company.
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