Book Title: Kathakoca or Treasury of Stories
Author(s): C H Tawney
Publisher: Oriental Books Reprint Corporation New Delhi

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Page 256
________________ 230 from the world of the gods and became Dhúsarí, the wife of Dhanya. Dhanya used to go outside the city and pasture his oxen. Then, the rainy season having arrived, and the clouds pouring down showers, Dhanya went to the forest to pasture his oxen, holding an umbrella over his head. There he saw a hermit, thin from severe self-mortification, standing motionless in the statuesque posture. Then Dhanya held with great devotion the umbrella over the head of the hermit, on account of the rain that the cloud was pouring down. Then Dhanya prostrated himself before the hermit, and said: “Whence have you come here?” The hermit said: "Worthy sir, I have come from the land of Pándu, and I am bound for Lanká; I am going to worship the spiritual teachers there. But I have been detained by the cloud that has been raining for a sevennight.” Dhanya said : “My lord, the ground is unfit for walking on account of the mud, so get up on this bullock of mine, and come to my house in the city." The hermit said: “Worthy sir, it is not fitting for hermits to make use of any means of conveyance;" so the hermit walked to the city with Dhanya. There Dhanya took the hermit to his house, and made him break his fast by giving him milk. Dhanya and Dhúsarí took the vows of lay disciples in the presence of the hermit. He remained during the rainy season in that city of Potana, and afterwards went elsewhere. Dhanya and Dhúsarí for a long time observed the vows of lay disciples, and then took upon themselves regular vows, and having observed these regular vows for seven years, they both died, and in their fourth birth were born as twins in the Himalayan region. Then they lived a religious life, and eventually died, and were born in their fifth birth in the world of gods called Saudharma. Dhanya became a god called Kshíradiņdíra. Dhúsarí was born as his wife in the same world of gods, and went by the name of the goddess Kshiradiņdirá. Then the soul of Dhanya fell from the world of gods, and was born as yourself, Nala. The soul of Dhúsarí fell from the world of gods, and was born as this Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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