________________
"Nāyadhammakabão is the Sixth Anga in the Jain Canon, and it means the "Examples and religious narratives." Book I of this Anga consists of 19 chapters each one of which as a rule presents a complete, independent narrative. Most of these tales are of the type which lays more stress on some parable incorporated in them, than on the tale itself ; some are, indeed, nothing but parables, spun out and enlarged to form narratives.
Beside these legends and parables, we also get novels, tales of adventures, Mariner's fairy tales, tales about robbers etc., in which the parable only appears in the form of a moral clumsily tacked on to the end.
Here, as in many other cases, the fate of persons is followed up in various rebirths. Chapter XVI contains the legend of Dovai i.e. Draupadī in the form of a story of re-birth. This is a monkish corrouption of the legend from the Mahābhārata, of Draupadi's marriage to the five brothers.
Book 1st of this Anga is a complete contrast to the second part both in form and contents, and is more closely associated with the 7th and the 9th Angas."
II. Summary of Chapter IX
Formerly, there lived in the city of Campā a merchant named Mākandi. His wife was Bhadrā. They had two sons named Jinapalita and Jinaraks'ita. These two brothers were of a very seafaring nature. They had successfully completed eleven voyages, and now they wanted to start out on the twelfth. It was, however, a superstition that the twelfth voyage was fraught with dangers ; and so their parents tried their best to dissuade them from their under. taking. But neither their tears nor their prayers were of any avail. So, ultimately, they somehow secured the permission of their parents and started.
After they had gone some miles, there began to appear hundreds of bad omens;-e.g., there was an untimely thunderShree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
