________________
*
blessings." While the king, with his beloved Rishidattá, was thus full of ascetic impulses, in the morning a keeper of the garden came and said to the king: 'My liege, there has arrived in the Kusumákara garden a teacher named Bhadrayaças, with his attendants.' When the king heard this, he bestowed on the gardener a gift consisting of five things, and he went to worship the sage. After he had worshipped him, he listened, in the company of Ṛishidattá, to his religious discourse. At the end of the sermon, Rishidattá said: 'Reverend sir, what deed did I do in a former life that I should have been thus falsely accused of being a Rákshasí?' The sage said:
116
"In this land of Bharata there is a city named Gangapura. In it there lived a king named Gangádatta; and he had a queen named Gangá, and their daughter was named Gangásená. In that very city there was an abbess of the name of Chandrayaças, from whom Gangásená received religious instruction. Then, after some time had passed, shet solemnly renounced in the presence of Chandrayaças all earthly pleasures as resembling poison. Now, it happened that in that very city a female lay disciple, named Sangá, was performing the penance of fasting for a whole month. Accordingly the people worshipped her, and published her fame abroad. When Gangásená saw how matters stood, she could not endure that Sangá should be praised, so one day she made the following imputation against the lay sister, that she was a Rákshasí, and devoured the flesh of corpses during the night, though she practised mortification during the day. Though Sangá heard the charge that had been brought against her, she endured it patiently, and did not bring a lying accusation against her rival. Owing to that deed Gangásená roamed through many births, and was again born as a princess in the city of Gangapura. Then she
STORY OF RISHIDATTÁ IN HER PREVIOUS BIRTHS.
* Compare Jacobi's Introduction to his edition of the 'Pariçishta Parvan,' p. 19.
†The Sanskrit has 'you,' which gives a kind of sense.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
