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served the cruei ends of justice, they were bound to incur sin; if they did not, there would be social disorder and imputation of cowardice. Failing to solve the probiem of reconciling justice with mercy, Sudatta renounced his kingdom and became a Jain monk.
In due course the Vidyādhara appeared in the role of a hangman in Ujjain, and Yaşodhara and Candramati were reborn as a rooster and hen in a settlement in the vicinity of the city. One day the hangman, who was known as Candakarman, happened to see the birds in the hands of a boy from the settlement. He acquired them from the boy and took them to Yaşomati. The latter was about to start for the garden of the Temple of the Thousand Spires, accompanied by a large retinue composed of boon companions and women of the harem, for the purpose of celebrating the worship of the god of love. The king asked the hangman to take the birds to the scene of the festival and give an exhibition of rooster-fighting.
The temple garden was full of orange-colored tents and rows of pavilions erected for the festival. The hangman went there with the birds in a cage, accompanied by a Bhagavata; the astrologer Dhāmadhvaja, a Brāhmana; the Saiva Haraprabodha, an expert in divining underground treasure; and the Buddhist Sugatakirti, a consummate cheat. There they saw Sudatta under and Ashoka tree, and severally expounded before the sage the philosophical tenets followed by each. Sudatta refuted all their doctrines and explained that Ahimsā or non-injury to living creatures is the basis of Dharma, the sole means of attaining worldly happiness and final beatitude.
In illustration of his point, Sudatta referred to the sufferings of the two birds in their various births as a result of obeying the law of violence. He briefly mentioned the circumstances of the death of Candramati and Yasodhara and the succession of their births. The hangman and his companions, chastened by the teachings of the sage, took the vow of Jaina laymen. Coincidentally the hangman, having fulfilled the conditions of the curse inflicted upon him, regained his former status and departed for the world of the Vidyādharas.
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