Kavyanushasana Part 2

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Rasiklal C Parikh, Ramchandra B Athvale
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

Page 42

Introduction
xxi
drinking unbalancing the clan-mind already excited by other causes.
Here I may mention the Jaina tradition about Arish anemi who became the twenty-second Tīrthamkara, as preserved in the twenty-second adhyayana of the Uttaradhyayana Sutra-a canonical work of the Svetambara Jainas. It mentions two Yadava kings Vasudeva and Samudravijaya who are evidently brothers, in the city of Soriyapura (a place near Mathura). Vasudeva had two queens Rohiņi and Devaki whose sons were Rāma and Keṣava respectively. Samudravijaya had a queen named Siva whose son was Arishtanemi. Samudravijaya had another son Rathanemi or Rathanemi after whom this adhyayana or chapter is named. (The commentators refer to the intervening events, -the fleeing away from Soriyapura and the coming to Dwaraka of these Yadavas who are mentioned as belonging to the Andhakavṛshni family.) When Arishtanemi becomes of age Kesava asks for Aristanemi the hand of the beautiful damsel Raymati-or Rājamatī who calls herself the daughter of Bhojarāja (according to the commentators Ugrasena a Yadava prince who was ruling in Junagaḍha). The match is settled, and as the marriage procession, with Arishtanemi on the best elephant-gandhahastin-of Vasudeva (evidently of Sri Krshna) is proceeding to the house of the bride's father, Arishtanemi discovers the pitiable conditions of the animals which are penned in pounds and cages and which are to be slaughtered far his marriage-feast. His heart is filled with emotion and he thinks of renouncing the world which he does ultimately without marrying Rājamatī. Rājamati, on