Jinamanjari 1995 09 No 12

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

Page 31

looks wider than all. It is like a jewelled floor; a sports place in the universe. The earth emerged out when water was delused(SB.II12).
'The sea looked like an emptied wine - bowel. Its water though unfit for consumption is nectar - like. Its rise during moon - lit nights is like advances of a cupid in full youth (SB. II - 20).
Pravarasena was a good friend of Kalidasa. He is the son of Prabhavatigupta, married to a vakata king of Vidarbha-prabhavati Gupta was the daughter of Chandragupta Vikramaditya II of Gupta dynasty.
Arama-Soha story
Haribhadra Suri was a great Jaina acharya of the medieval period. He wrote a work called “Samyaktva - Saptati". Its commentator Sanghatilaka Suri, a disciple of Gunasekarasuri of Rudrapalli gaccha whose date is fixed at about 1479 A.D.,refers to twenty stories in it. Story of Arama-Soha details the need for snake worship, cow worship and gardens. It is written in canipu style, a mixture of prose and poetry, and the language is Maharashtri Prakrit.
Arama - Shoha was a beautiful Brahmin girl. Her childhood name was Vidyut-Prabha.She lost her mother when she was eight. Her father married again. She was put to untold suffering by her step mother.. She used to take cows to the jungle for grazing. Once, while she was resting on the grass in the after-noon time, a serpant came to beg her to rescue him from the snake-charmers. Vidyut - Prabha boldly hid the
t under her lap covering him with a cloth and could successfully avert the charmers. The snake who was thus rescued was a Naga-god who appeared to her in his true form after the departure of charmers. He was pleased with her courage and compassion and bestowed her a boon. She requested the Naga-Deva to create a beautiful garden in the surrounding barren land Then Naga-Deva created a wonder-ful garden with several fruits and flowers blossoming during all the six-seasons of the year.
The story of Arama-Shoha relates to the ecological aspect of the enviorn and for extending shadow to cow-herds and others.
29