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Life and Stories of Pārçvanātha
SARGA THE EIGHTH 1
Story of the misogynist Sāgaradatta, who was redeemed
by a clever woman The Lord of the world, in the course of his progress, in time arrived at Puņdradeça. There, in the city of Tāmralipti, lived a pious young merchant's son, Sāgaradatta by name. In a former existence he had been a priest, and had been poisoned by his lewd wife. Cast out while unconscious he had been revived by a shepherd's wife (gokulini). He then became a wandering ascetic (parivrāj), and, after death, was reborn as Sāgaradatta. Owing to the memory of his former birth, he became a woman-hater. The kind shepherdess, who also died in piety, was reborn as the beautiful daughter of a merchant. Sāgara cast longing eyes upon her; his relatives, knowing his sentiments, chose her as his wife; but his eye only was pleased with her, not his mind. For he looked upon women afright, as tho they were swords (6).
Then the woman, undismayed, wrote him a çloka message: 'Why, o wise man, dost thou neglect a devoted lady! The full-moon day makes shine the moon; lightning, the ocean; woman, the householder.' Sāgara replied with a cloka : 2 " Like a river, woman is by nature unstable, tends downward; she is ill-behaved, stupid, destroys both partners.' Again, concluding that his mind was poisoned by the memory of a woman's corruptness in a former birth, she sent him a second çloka: - Surely, the
* The episodes in this sarga are in loose connection with the frame story containing the life of Pårçva. The sarga is probably a later addition,
* See Bühtlingk, Indische Sprüche, nr. 7209, and note 18, on p. 199.
