Manuscript Illustrations Of Uttaradhyayana Sutra

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

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20. THE GREAT DUTY OF JAIN MONKS The story is told in this chapter of king Sreņika of Magadha, who once went to the Mandikukși caitya pleasure grove, and there saw a Jain monk, whose body showed at once that he was of noble lineage. The king approached respectfully and asked the ascetic why he had left his life of ease. The monk answered that it was because he was without a protector. The king said that he was a protector, but the ascetic then replied that the king himself was without a protector; how, then, could he protect anyone else. When the king showed astonishment at being considered incapable of giving protection, the monk told his own story. He had been born in a wealthy family of Kausāmbi. Once, when young, he got a severe pain in his eyes accompanied by a burning fever with aches all over his body. Physicians could not help him; nor father, mother, brothers, sisters, wife. Thinking how hard it is to endure pains in the endless round of existence. (samsāra), he vowed that, if he should recover from his illness, he would become a houseless monk. He fell asleep and awoke cured; whereupon he became a monk and so his own protector, maker of his own suffering and of his own salvation as well. Then follow sixteen verses, which both Jacobi and Charpentier consider to be an interpolation, describing the principal duties of Jain monks-their vows and rules of conduct-and emphasizing the unhappy fate of those who are lax. At the end king Sreņika acknowledges the truth of the ascetic's idea of protection, and with all his wives, servants, and relatives is converted to the Jain faith. After this, bowing in reverence, he departs, and the monk goes on his way, too, untrammeled, free
bowielusion.
mintings are attaback to the
In JP two paintings are attached to this chapter. In the lower scene of the first (fig. 74) king Śreņika is going on horseback to the grove, which is indicated by branches of trees extending inward from the sides. Before him strides a retainer with a sword over his right shoulder. At the top the monk sits under a canopy preaching, and the king is in front with his hands joined before him in the usual gesture of reverence. The second painting (fig. 75) has an architectural setting with the monk on his high-backed seat preaching and the king kneeling before him. .
The painting of DV (fig. 76) has the monk seated preaching, again on his spired throne, with the king before him on a noble seat. All the appurtenances, such as the architectural setting, the style of the seats, the decorations, and the costumes are of the usual sort. In JM (fig. 77) the ascetic stands under a tree in meditation. Beside him with hands joined and uplifted stands the king, and behind the king is a fly-whisk bearer, made small in size to suit his lesser importance. The royal unbrella appears behind the king, but with no one to support it.
I have no illustration for HV, perhaps having failed to photograph one that should be attached to the chapter.
1 At the end of this chapter JP has a third painting, which really illustrates the story of Rathanemi in Chapter 22, and is reproduced and described below (fig. 87). A note in the margin beside the painting says atra nirarthakarūpakam idam, citrakāradüşanam na tu lesakasya, agretanam "here this is a meaningless illustration, the painter's fault, not the copyist's; further on."
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