Manuscript Illustrations Of Uttaradhyayana Sutra

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

Page 63

19. MẶGĀPUTRA The conversion of Mrgāputra is the subject of this chapter. In the city of Sugrīva reigned king Balabhadra and his chief queen Mrgā, who had a son named Balasri, but generally known by his metronymic Mrgāputra. He lived in ease with his wives until one day he chanced to see from a palace window a Jain monk passing by. The sight aroused his rememberance of former births, and he recalled that he had himself once been a monk; whereupon he became disgusted with the world of the senses and went to his parents to ask permission, in the prescribed Jain manner, to enter the order of monks. In stanzas 10-23 of the text he states his reasons; his parents reply in stanzas 24-43, describing the suffering and difficulties of a monk's life. But he is not dissuaded, and in stanzas 44-74 he recalls the many sufferings of his previous existences as a human being, a hell dweller, an animal, a tree, a metal; and especially he elaborates on the favorite Jain theme of the tortures experienced in hell. At last his parents consent, and he goes to wander alone like a wild animal, having no property and no personal attachments, giving up his friends, wives, sons, and relations, faithfully observing all the duties of a monk.
The simplest illustration of this story is that in DV (fig. 67), where king Balabhadra is seated on his throne, sword in right hand, royal parasol above him, his body fully ornamented, with Mrgāputra at the right under a tree, pulling out his hair in the traditional manner of initiation as a Jain monk.
In JM (fig. 68) the upper register has king Balabhadra and queen Mrgā seated facing each other, presumably when Mrgāputra asks leave to become a monk. In the lower register are three monks, two with begging bowls on the ground before them.
The painting of HV (fig. 69 shows, in the top panel, the king and queen seated in conversation. In the middle panel are illustrations of some of Mrgāputra's sufferings in previous existences, as catalogued in stanzas 44-74. At the left he is bent over with his head being crushed in a sugar press, which a bullock is turning (stanza 53); in the center he is seated while a man attacks him with an axe and perhaps a javelin to hack and pierce him (stanza 55); at the right he lies upon a fire being roasted (stanza 49). In the bottom register he is yoked to a car full of red hot fuel, being driven on with goad and whip (stanza 56), his hair apparently serving as reins. In the center he is seated under a tree talking; perhaps this illustration shows him as he describes the punishments to his father and mother, who are seen in the top panel. At the right he is tied down over a fire, being roasted like a buffalo (stanza 57); and underneath that scene he stands in a portico with outstretched hands, but I cannot identify the subject.
27