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100.
Life and Stories of Pārçvanātha
loved wife, by a Vidyādhari, who desired to institute a great sacrifice (mahāhoma) with the flesh of his body 44 (920). Just then the Vidyādhari had gone to bathe in the Gañgā. Hariççandra, eager to die while performing a service to another, prevailed upon Mabāsena to escape with his wife, Hariçcandra acting as his substitute in the Vidyādhari's sacrifice. Joyfully he tied himself, face down, to the branch of the banyan tree (934). On her return the Vidyādharī asked a retainer to ascertain whether the sacrificial man bore auspicious marks. The retainer found that he bore the marks of an emperor (cakravartin). She then appealed to Hariçcandra to show courage, in order that the science • All-conquering' (viçvavaçikāravidyā),45 accruing from this sacrifice, be kind and liberal to her. She began to cut off his flesh, but the sound of a jackal caused a disturbance. She asked her retainers to stop the noise, because it might arouse some ascetic. This actually happened, whereupon the Vidyādhari was greatly distressed. Hariçcandra suggested that she should finish by cutting off his head. But she replied that such a procedure would violate the order of the sacrifice. An ascetic tben appeared, raging over the desecration of the hermitage, whereupon the Vidyādharī vanished with her retinue (954).
The ascetic, rummaging about, came upon Hariçcandra, hanging from the tree, his flesh cut from his body. From certain sigus he was led to ask him whether he was Hariccandra, and, when he said yes, he asked whether he had paid the debt owing the Sage. Hariscandra replied that the payment would be complete in a few days. The ascetic turned out to be Kāuțilya, the Sage's witness to
* See additional note 27, on p. 205.
“For these personified Sciences' see the author in Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. lvi, pp. 4 ff.
