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sūri. When this Sūri delivered his usual religious sermons, 12 pontiffs used to sit at his each side. On his right, again, were placed nine cups in the flowerportico for accumulating the nectar of the nine sentiments flowing from the expounder's nice speech! On his left, however, was kept a dagger which would work upon his tongue in case of a corrupted utterance or a repetition !
One day there arrived at Sripattana (mod. Prabhās a Pāța ņa in Sa u rāşțra) a dialectician from the Gauda country, Deva ma hānanda by name, who had 84 puppets tied to his legs. He placed straw and water at the entrance of the temple of Somanāth a and pronounced this challenge:
“If there is any dialectician, let him enter into a dialectical contest with me; or else let him stand before me in the manner of a beast!"
Three days having lapsed, goddess Sarasvati commanded Varddhamana sūri at night to go to Sripatta na to vanquish the disputant and asked him to sip the nectar-water from a water-pot.
Thereupon the pontiff caused two of his disciples, Vāghalau and Singhalau by name, to sip it, as a consequence whereof arose in them a huge wave of knowledge. Them he sent along with the people who approached him at the command of the goddess.
The preceptor protected them (through his spiritual powers) against the floods of the river Deyi, paralysing the flow whereof he enabled them to cross the river safely. All concerned were wonder-struck at this.
Having reached Deva pattana the two disciples commenced the contest which continued for as many as 18 days. At last the dialectician was defeated and died of heart-bursting. The wealth left by the dying disputant was utilized in erecting twenty-four Jaina monasteries furnished with residential accommodation for monks.
This Varddha māna sûri composed the Vasupujya caritra.
THE CONCLUDING STANZA
to the glory of kings lies in the tusks of elephants, of paupers in the shoulders of bulls, of warriors in the tip of (their) swords (and) of ladies in (their) breasts."
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