Manuscript Illustrations Of Uttaradhyayana Sutra

Author(s): W Norman Brown
Publisher: American Oriental Society

Page 35

8. KAPILA
This chapter consists of verses ascribed to the sage Kapila. His story is told in the commentaries, and Jacobi summarizes it in his translation of the text (p. 31 f.). In the city of Kausāmbi king Jitalatru had a chaplain named Kasyapa. When Kasyapa died the king appointed another chaplain, and Kasyapa's widow and her son fell into poverty. To get the boy an education the widow sent him to the city of Srävasti, where lived Indradatta, a friend of Kasyapa. Indradatta was willing enough to let the boy study with him, but he was too poor to lodge and feed him. However, he got a merchant named Salibhadra to take him. There Kapila fell in love with a servant girl who waited on him, and she with him, and he neglected his studies. One day he found her in tears. He questioned her, and found that her caste of servants was having a festival, but she could not attend because she had no money with which to buy the betel, garland, garment, and ornaments needed for the celebration. She asked Kapila to go for the money to a rich merchant named Dhana, who gave two pieces of gold every morning to the first man who greeted him. Kapila stayed awake all night and set out while it was dark for Dhana's house; but in the darkness the city police took him for a thief, arrested him, and in the morning brought him before king Prasenajit. The king saw at once that the boy was no thief, and asked for his story, which the boy told promptly and frankly. The king was pleased, and offered Kapila a boon, and Kapila went outside in a grove to reflect. Although his first thought had been for two pieces of gold, he quickly saw that a hundred would be better; then he saw use for a thousand, then a lakh (a hundred thousand), a crore (ten million), ten crores, a hundred crores. Just at that point his good karma ripened, and he recognized that desires starting from very little quickly become limitless. He himself was neglecting his opportunity for study by running after a servant girl, and even a mountain of gold would not satisfy him. He tore out his hair, becoming a Self-Enlightened (svayamsambuddha), and the gods provided him with a monk's garments. Then he preached to the king on the text of stanza 17: "The more one gets, the more he wants; desires grows with acquisition. Two māsas would be enough, yet a crore does not satisfy." The king offered him as many crores as he might wish, but he renounced all, preached to the king, gave him a blessing, and set out on austerities, eventually obtaining omniscience. He saw that in a forest eighteen yojanas from Rajagṛha a band of five hundred robbers was ready for conversion. He went there, and they caught and bound him, and took him to their leader. The leader had him loosened, and commanded him to dance. He said that he had no drummer to beat time. But the robbers clapped their hands to mark the rhythm, and he began to dance. As he danced he sang the verses of this chapter, and with each stanza some of the robbers were converted, until at last all five hundred had seen the light and become his disciples.
HV (fig. 22) shows three scenes from this story. In the top register Kapila, his hands bound, is brought by a policeman before the king; but the artist has blundered strangely. and instead of presenting Prasenajit has drawn a monk: the artist was perhaps not a Jain, and made a slip here. In the middle scene Kapila is in the garden getting enlightenment.
13