Kathakoca or Treasury of Stories

Author(s): C H Tawney
Publisher: Oriental Books Reprint Corporation New Delhi

Page 44

Fire becomes water, water dry land, a mighty snake becomes the stalk of a lotus;
Poison becomes nectar, and the treacherous man sincere, the lion becomes a jackal;
And all other dangerous things become harmless to mortals; the power by whose lofty influence this happens
Is, as we have heard, a mighty providence arising from virtue, with wide-reaching splendour of fortune.
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All hail to the honourable lady Madanarekhá divinely adorned, Marked by beauty and loveliness, who made her mark in the world, When her husband was killed, and his elder brother sought her love, And the pride of the Vidyadhara who conceived a passion for her
met with repulse.
Now, by way of illustration, follows the story of the very virtuous Madanarekhá. In this very Jambudvipa, in this very land of Bharata, in the province of Avanti, there is a city named Sudarcanapura. In it there ruled a king named Maniratha; he had a younger brother named Yugabáhu. Yugabáhu's wife, Madanarekha, was exceedingly beautiful: she was an ardent votary of the law of the Jina, virtuous, auspiciously marked, full of blessed qualities. One day King Maniratha, the elder brother, having his mind bewildered by the beauty of Madanarekha, said to himself: 'I must obtain possession of this woman by hook or by crook, through happiness or unhappiness, by fair or foul play.' Accordingly King Maniratha in his tenderness gave her flowers, betel, dresses, ornaments, and other things, in order to incline her mind to his wishes; but Madanarekhá took them all without being corrupted. Then the king sent a female messenger. She went and said to Madanarekhá, 'My good lady, the king, being attached to your good qualities, sends you this message by me:
STORY OF MADANAREKHÁ AND HER SON NAMI.*
'Receive me as your husband, and become the queen of this realm.' Then the lady, detecting her object, spake thus the mind of the
virtuous:
By longing for other women, men go to the depths of hell, Therefore be content, O king; relinquish the wicked grasping after
pleasure.'
The female messenger quickly reported her words to the king.
This is identical with the story of Nami in Jacobi's 'Ausgewählte Erzählungen in Maháráshtrí.'