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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
121
period of time were accustomed to taking possession of his house as well as his means of maintenance (25.15 ff.). Proclamations of challenges for performing very difficult tasks were made with the beating of drums at the cross. ways of the cities. He who wished to accept the challenge used to touch the drum with his palio ( 17-5-8; 25.24). There is a reference to certain ceremony called Haraliyă (?) performed in order to free ladies from formal mourning when a fixed number of days lapsed after the demise of a very near relative. This had usually to be done before any auspicious ceremony could take place in their relations so that they might be in a position to attend the same (15.16-17).
There is a reference to a pregnant lady moving with a cocoanut-fruit and unbroken rice-grains in her hands (28.17-18). This may probably hint at the performance of the Simanta-ceremony celebrating the first pregnancy.
A Yaksa, residing in a place called Yaksabhuvana situated in the out. skirts or the city, appears to liave been belicved to be the protector of the king (10.21-11.10). People also believed in the sixty-fuur Yuginis and the Ksetrapála, human oblations to whom would best be offered at midnight of the fourteenth day of the dark half of the month of A svina, which is popularly known in Gujarata as Kali Canlasa (14.6 ff.). Taking a religious Oath in order to propitiate deities for the welfare of one's near relatives was so common that even queen-motliera y av alla devi is stated to have taken such an oath for the sale return from victory-march of her son king Siddharija J a yasimha, who, at her word, fulfills the oath by going to Dabhoi for paying respects to the deity Pår svanätba, even before entering his capital ( 22.3 ff.). The belief in the auspicious and inauspicious indications of the cries of a jackal or an owlet is also noted here (16.10-20; 28.18 ff.). There is a reference to the remernbering of one's past birth also ( 29.12). Certain persons dying during penance-practising are stated to have become, after cath, the tutelary deities of the places concerned (29.19). Ollcring water to the thirsty-especially to creatures of the cowfamily-was believed to earn great merit (18.16 ff.).
The following flora and fauna have secured a mention in our text:
Flora : There is a reference to the tree in general (13.!. At one place tbe celestial trees also are mentioned (6,9). The banian-tree (Vata-urksa) along with its branch-roots dropping milk in the mouth of a mother-less insant is also relerred to ( 29.2-3). There is a mention of bamboo-groves (29.15). The tamarind tree is made the fool of certain magic performances (13.21; 26
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