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14
Life and Stories of Pārçvanātha
man sees him, and, goaded on by his prenatal enmity, says to the king: • Sire, if I may be allowed to eat a pudding of rice and milk off the back of this merchant, I will break my fast, but not otherwise.' The ascetic eats from a red hot dish placed on the back of Jinadharma; when the meal is finished, the dish is wrenched from his back together with blood, sinews, flesh, and fat. But the victim bears patiently the fruit of his actions in a former life, turns ascetic, and is reborn as Indra. Agniçarman is reborn as Āirāvana, the elefant on which Indra rides. The latter falls from that position and, after various animal rebirths, comes into existence again as the Yakşa Asita. Indra, too, falls, to be reborn as the emperor Sanatkumāra. The two finally meet in a great combat, in which the Yakşa is conquered, but, being immortal, his final discomfiture takes the form of flight.
The Prākrit Samarāïccakahā and its Sanskrit digest, Pradyumnasūri's Samārāditya Samkşepa, deal with nine existences (bhava) of the Prince Gunasena and the Brahman Agniçarman. In cach of these the soul of Agniçarman is controlled by hatred of the soul of Gunasena, and in each existence the reincarnation of Gunasena is destroyed by that of Agniçarman, until Gunasena reaches final emancipation.
Anent Dhammapada 291 (Not hatred for hatred '), Buddhaghoşa's Dhammapada Commentary, 21. 2, tells how a girl eatthe eggs of a hen, whereupon the hen prays that she may be reborn as a Rākşasī, or ogress, fit and able to devour the children of her enemy. In 500 successive existences they return hatred for hatred. In time the girl is reborn as a young woman of Sāvatthi, and the hen is reborn as an ogress. The ogress devours two children of the young woman, and is about to seize the third, when the young woman seeks refuge in the monas
