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Sidelights on the Life Time Sandalwood Image of Mahavira
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initiated as a Buddhist nun and died after seven days. The king, too, placing his son Sikhandi on the throne, turned a Buddhist monk, taking diksa at the hands of Buddha at Rajagrha. Sikhandi and his two new ministers oppressed the subjects so much that Rudrayana decided to return to Roruka in order to persuade his son to give up the policy of oppression. But, following the evil advice of the ministers, Sikhandi contrived to get Rudrayana murdered and ordered his people to throw dust on the monk Katyayana. People threw so much dust that the poor monk was practically buried under it. The two old ministers Hiru and Bhiru came to know of this atrocity and saved the monk. The monk advised Hiru and Bhiru to leave the city which was to be destroyed and buried under a sandstorm on the seventh day. Hiru and Bhiru did so in a boat, went to some other country and founded two cities called Hiruka and Bhirukaccha. Katyayana also went to Lampaka, Syamaka, Vokkana and other places and from thence, crossing the Sindhu river, reached Sravasti in the Madhya-desa where the Buddha was then having a stay.
The account of Rudrayana is also available in the Avadanakalpalata of Ksemendra, but is known from any Pali text of the southern Hinayana. 14 The account of the destruction of Ho-lo-lokia, given by Hiuen-Tsang, noted above, and the story of the city of Roruka are possibly based upon a common source and Ho-lolo-kia possibly signifies Roruka.15 Roruka is generally regarded as the capital city of the Sauvira land. The similarity in the names Rudrayana and Candraprabha with Uddayana and Prabhavati of the Jaina accounts, as also the close parallel in the account of the queen dancing to the tune of the vina played upon by the king, the burial by sandstorm of the cities of Roruka and Vitabhayapattana and finally the reference to the sandalwood image in the account of the Chinese traveller are noteworthy. Ksemendra gives the name Udrayana for Rudrayana and the identity of the Sanskrit appellation Udrayana with the prakrt Uddayana is obvious. .
Incidentaly, it may be noted here that Sauvira is associated with Sindhu in the Jaina version of the story of Uddayana and Vitabhayapattana is mentioned as the capital of the Sindhu Sauvira country. 16 The two lands of Sindhu and Sauvira are mentioned in the Pali texts, each of which is described as a great centre of trade
