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NARRATIVE TALE IN JAIN LITERATURE
poor widow, a shepherd boy named Samgama, who delighted in giving himself up to religious meditations while minding the flocks. On a feast-day he sees that delicious food is being prepared in all the houses, and he asks his mother to prepare a festive meal for his too. With great difficulty the poor woman succeeds in preparing a meal of this kind. However, before Samgama eats it, there comes an ascetic who is just about to break his fast, and the bov gives him the meal which has been prepared for himself. (According to the Jaina faith, it is the most meritorious form of alms-giving to offer food to an ascetic after his fast.) In consequence of this good deed, Samgama is reborn in Rājagsha as sālibhadra, the son of Bhadrā and Gobhadra, endowed with incomparable beauty and all virtues. When he had reached manhood, his father selects 32 beautiful virgins as his wives, and he leads a happy life. His father Gobhadra became an ascetic, died the voluntary death by starvation, and reached heaven. As a god, he procures immense wealth for his son Sälibhadra. “As rich as Śālibhadra” became proverbial, just as we say "as rich as Crcesus." One day, however, owing to the sight of King Sreņika who, in spite of all his power, is nevertheless only an ordinary mortal, he becomes enlightened, and becomes a Pratyekabuddha. He repairs to the teacher Dharmaghosa, who instructs him in the religion, and finally, after he has renounced the world, he is reborn as a god in heaven.
XIX
THE STORY OF TARANGAVATI The story of Tarangavati as told in the Tarangarolā :
A nun who is conspicuous for her beauty, tells the story of her life. She was the charming daughter of a rich merchant. One day she sees a couple of ducks in a lotus pond, and falls into a swoon : for she remembers that in a previous life she had been a duck like this, and that, out of love for a drake killed by the hunter, she had burned herself with him. She longs for the husband of her previous
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