Book Title: Narrative Tale in Jain Literature
Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Asiatic Society

Previous | Next

Page 97
________________ 82 NARRATIVE TALE IN JAIN LITERATURE by three lucky dreams. The first is named Padma, 4 and the second Lakṣmaṇa : his sons Bharata and Satrughna are born to him by Kaikeyi (XXV, 1-13). Whereas the heroes of the Rāmāyana move in an entirely Brahmanical atmosphere, in the Paüma-Cariya the religion of the Jina is everywhere very much to the fore. The kings are generally pious laymen, who retire from the world in their old age, and become Jaina monks. As in all narrative poems of the Jainas, the preliminary stories, ie., the stories of the previous existences of the heroes, are told with a great wealth of detail. Dasaratha takes up the reins of government, because his elder brother Anantaratha has become a monk (XXII, 100-105). A festival in the Jaina temple is described (XXIX, 1-18) at which King Dasaratha with his sons performs the ablution of the Jina images, and after an eight days' fast worships the Jinas. After the ablution he sends the water to his wives, and the young women, the daughters-in-law, pour it over the heads of their mothers-in-law. Now the principal wife did not receive the water which was intended for her, and feels herself slighted, so that she wishes to hang herself. The king, however, surprises her. While she is explaining things to him, the chamberlain comes with the water, and pours it over her head, whereupon she calms down. But the king reproaches the chamberlain with his thoughtlessness, whereupon the latter excuses himself on the ground of old age : "The body goes slowly like an old cart, The eyes are short-sighted like bad friends. The ears are deaf like bad sons, The teeth have fallen out like spokes out of the wheel, The hands find it difficult to grasp, like elephants taking a bite, The legs are unreliable like bad women; Only the crutch is like the beloved of the heart." These words are a warning for the king, intimating that he, too, is ripe to say farewell to worldly things. 4. It is noteworthy that it is only Rāma who has received another name, whilst the other namos remain unchanged. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162