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98
NARRATIVE TALE IN JAIN LITERATURE
"Do not desire (women), those female demons, on whose breasts grow two lumps of flesh, who continually change their mind, who entice men, and then make a sport of them as of slaves.
"A houseless (monk) should not desire women, he should turn away from female; learning thoroughly the Law. a monk should strictly keep its rule."14
XI
THE STORY OF RATHANEMI (Uttarādhyayana-sūtra ch. 22):
In the city of Sauryapura there lived two mighty princes. The first. Vasudeva by name, had two wives, Rohini and Devakī, each of whom bore him a son, Rāma and Kesava. The second, Samudravijaya by name, had a son Aristanemi by his wife Śivā. Keśava sought Rājimati, the daughter of a mighty king, as a wife for Ariştanemi, and she is granted him. Aristanemi sets forth with great pomp to fetch his bride; but on the way he sees many animals confined in cages and enclosures, and learns, in answer to his question, that these animals are all to be slaughtered for his marriage-feast. He is so deeply shocked by this, that he resolves to take the vow of an ascetic. When Princess Rājimati hears of it, she breaks forth into lamentations, but then resolves, in her turn, to become a nun. In her wanderings as a nun, she one day takes refuge in a cave during a torrent of rain. She believes herself to be alone, and undresses herself, in order to dry her garment. Now the ascetic Rathanemi, Aristanemi's elder brother, had previously taken refuge in the same cave. Now when he sees Rājīmati in her nude beauty, he is seized by passion and makes advances to her. However, she reproves him, and admonishes him not to wish to "drink that which another has spat out." Reminded of his vow by her forcible
14. Uttar. VIII, 16-19, translated by Jacobi in SBE, Vol. 45, p.
34 f.
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