Mahanisiha Studies And Edition In Germany

Author(s): Chandrabhal Tripathi
Publisher: Chandrabhal Tripathi

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MAHĀNISĪHA STUDIES AND EDITION IN GERMANY
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she should confess and thus cause blame to her family, she decides to ask about the penalty for her sin under the excuse that this is meant for somebody else, and then to perform the repentance herself. She dies and is reborn as a maid-servant, now called Khandotthā, in the services of a harlot, who pains her as she is more beautiful than the harlot (who is called theri and ves'ajjā) herself. A dream warns Khandoţthā of the intention of the harlot to maim her limbs, hence she runs away and in a foreign place gets married to the son of a rich widow. The first wife of her husband deforms Khandotthā because of envy and thus kills her. The husband becomes a monk out of grief. However, Khandotthā, rather her soul (sometimes masc., sometimes fem. pronoun), has to undergo many tragic rebirths till she will in future - driven out of the village as a dākini - see the Tirthankara Padma and simply because of this darśana attain mokşa.
Sec.8, $$1-11, vss.306-385. After a series of vocatives to Mahāvīra (891-11), follows the question (vss.306-11): Why is the dharma not preached in such a way that to attain monkhood the devotee would need a chain of eleven existences, while according to the prevailing doctrine he has to undertake unbelievable austerity to reach salvation within one birth. In the case of the first alternative even tender persons could be won over for the teachings. Before an answer to this query is given through a parable (vss.374-85), the immediately following sub-section deals with the "tender" (dullaliya and sukumāliya); it is metrically even more irregular than the preceding ones and it remains unclear at many places. A tender person in the real sense of the term is only the Tīrthankara. When he is in the womb of his mother, Indra serves him with amsta; at the time of his birth, his country is free from pains and diseases; the gods initiate him and all, gods and human beings, praise him (vss.312-20). After a short enjoyment of worldly pleasures he recognizes their unsteadiness and leaves them in order to practice tapas (vss. 321-25). How different is in contrast the tenderness of those who wish to attain that what they feel as luck within one life-time (vss.326-28). They undertake various arduous tasks and have to be satisfied if at least they attain something, may be a rag! (vss.329-32). They leave their friends and pleasures to collect under troubles some small copper coins (vss.333-36). Their tenderness is such that they do agree with the dharma but do not work for it (vs.337).