Narrative Tale in Jain Literature

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Asiatic Society

Page 32

NARRATIVE TALE IN JAIN LITERATURE
Lobhananda perished on account of anger, vanity, treachery and greed respectively (Bh. 153). Five members of a family at Ayalaggāma, viz., Suraï, Saya, Deva, Samaṇa and Subhadda, humbly waited upon a monk, Khamaga by name, who was penance-worn, and accepted from him the vows of a house-holder after hearing his discourses on Punya and Papa. Later they entered the ascetic order in the religious regime of Vasupujya. They practised various severe penances and were born in the Aparajita-vimāna. Thence they were born as the victorious sons of Pāṇḍu in the Bharata country. Hearing the sad news of Kṛṣṇa's death, they got themselves admitted to the order under the monk Suṭṭhiya. The eldest mastered fourteen and the rest eleven Purvas, and they became famous all over the world. They came to Suraṭṭha; and hearing about the Nirvāṇa of Jina [Nemi], they adopted fast. Bhima practised rigorous austerities, adopted Prayopagamana on the mount Śatrumjaya, tolerated every trouble, and reached Parinirvana. The rest of them also followed him (M. 44964). Even a Pāņa (i. e. canḍāla) could get divine attendance, when fallen in a crocodile pond, by virtue of his having observed the vow of Ahimsa only for a day (Bh. 96). There should not be any attachment, even for a second, towards kinsmen and relatives, because it is they that become enemies like that mother in the case of Bambhadatta (M. 376). The pupils of the Arhat [Mahāvīra] were burnt by Mankhali11 with his penancial lustre; being thus burnt, they attained the highest object (S. 88). The queen Miyāvai destroys within a moment the Karman of her past lives by Vandana and other rites (Bh. 50). Possession or attachment is dangerous: the saint Meyajja, along with the Krauñca bird (?), was oppressed by a house-holder when the wealth was really taken by his son12. Out of sheer compassion he did not expose the Krauñca bird which was a culprit; and when his eyes were pierced, he remained firm like the Mandara mountain (Bh. 133 M. 425-6). That wicked Mentha, who was sent to the gallows for theft, offered salutation to the Jina [at the moment of his death] and
11. Cf. Bhagavati, Śataka XV.
12. Possibly there are two versions of the same story.
17