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NARRATIVE TALE IN JAIN LITERATURE
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XVII
THE STORY OF KING VIKRAMA The story of king Vikrama as a parrot as told in the
Pārsvanāthacarita (III. 105 m).
The mighty King Vikrama who is endowed with all the virtues, learns from a sage the magic art of penetrating into another body. At the same time with him a Brahman learns the same art. The latter, a scoundrel, seizes the opportunity when Vikrama leaves his own body and enters that of an elephant, to penetrate into the body of the king, and to give himself out as the king. When the real King Vikrama is aware of this, he enters into the body of a parrot, allows himself to be caught by a hunter, and causes this man to sell him to the queen. As a parrot he becomes the queen's favourite and converses with her; they ask each other riddles, and he recites to her all kinds of wise sayings and instructions on the religion of the Jina. The riddles are erudite rather than popular. One of the simpler riddles is that of the queen : "It makes snakes poisonless, the gods powerless, lions motionless, and yet children hold it in their hands, what is it?" The parrot guesses it at once : "A painter's brush." After so many proofs of sagacity the queen no longer doubts that the wise parrot is none other than the real King Vikrama, her husband. One day Vikrama's soul leaves the parrot's body, and enters into the body of a lizard. When the queen sees the dead body of the bird, she begins to lament, and wishes to burn herself with it. In order to prevent the self-immolation of the queen, the false king enters into the parrot's body, which enables the real king to assume his own body and to appear before the queen in all his splendour.
XVIII
THE STORY OF ŚĀLIBHADRA The story of Salibhadra's Dänadharma as told by
Dharakumāra in his Sālibhadracarita :
In his former incarnation Śālibhadra was the son of a
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