Manuscript Illustrations Of Uttaradhyayana Sutra

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

Page 36

14
KAPILA
He has put on the garments brought by the gods, two of whom flank him in reverent posture. In the bottom register he is dancing, while four of the robbers keep time.
In DV (fig. 24) two scenes are shown. In the upper Kapila, dressed as a well-to do layman instead of a poor Brahman youth, stands before king Prasenajit, who is seated holding his scepter. Kapila has been unbound, and he holds in his hand an object which I cannot identify. In the lower register Kapila is in the garden pulling out his hair in the traditional manner of Jain monks when being initiated into the order, while beside him is a god stretching out his hands to receive it; cf. the scenes in the Kalpasūtra paintings of Mahāvīra tearing out his hair (BrKS figs. 73, 74).
In JM (fig. 23) Kapila stands before king Prasenajit, holding out a water-pot in his two hands. In the lower scene he is plucking out his hair. No gods are present, but on each side of him, under a tree, is a peacock preening itself, this last being a conventional touch in forest scenes.
9. NAMI'S ENTRY INTO MONKHOOD For the early part of king Nami's story we must turn to the commentaries. He was king of the celebrated city Mithilā, where many other worthies had lived. The commentaries have an elaborate introduction, which gives the history of Nami's father, mother, uncle, and elder brother and ends with his conversion. That event came about in consequence of a six-months fever that afflicted the king and would not yield to the royal physician. To make a cooling paste for his body, the queens rubbed sandal, and as they rubbed their bracelets jangled, filling the palace with the noise and disturbing the king. They thought to spare him by removing the bracelets, and they took them off one at a time, but he got no relief until each queen had only a single bracelet left. The king asked why the bracelets had stopped clinking. When he was told, he reflected, “ The fault exists when there are many, not in a single one." This was the case not only with bracelets, but also with mankind; and he vowed, if he should recover, to become a monk, living in solitude. Because he was enlightened (buddha) by a single incident (pratyeka) he was a Pratyekabuddha.
The Uttarādhyayana text professes to carry on the story from this point, but there is a discrepancy between the early part of the chapter and the last. At the beginning the text states that king Nami, remembering his former birth, left the city and his palace and retired from the world to the forest. At that time an uproar arose, and the god Sakra, the deus ex machina of Jain holy legend, came to him disguised as an elderly Brahman. The two had a long conversation, in which Sakra said, "Your palace is on fire. Why do you not look after your harem?" Nami replied with the famous verse, "Happy we dwell, happy
This scene is very much like that of the Farmer and the Master of Magic attached to chapter 6 (see figs. 17, 18).
1 Text published by Jacobi, Ausgewählte Erzählungen in Māhārāshtri, pp. 41-48; translation in J. J. Meyer, Hindu Tales, pp. 147-169.
2 For Sakra in similar disguise, when he appeared before the sūri Kālaka, see BrKK 69 et passim, and fig. 19.
in which Sakra bim disguised as an and the god Sakra, the