________________
xlvi
Karma (a term taken from medicine) which motivates many births of each (5. 11-12) of which nine being prominent have been undertaken for story-purposes. Even in the sub-story in the First Birth viz. the story of विजयसेन's friend विभावसु, the series of birth has been caused by the fault of (vanity). In the Second Birth, the inveterate hatred between the two अग्निशर्मन् and गुणसेन=आनंद the son and सिंह the father, motivates the action of the story. The sub-story of the history of, the teacher of धर्मंघोष who related the story to सिंह, is motivated by the fault of (=deceit). Thus in the garb of stories, Haribhadra tries to give what dire results follow the faults of क्रोध, मान, माया etc. without being in the least insipid, and justifies most aptly the designation of the work in the class of धम्मकहा.
The manner of putting stories within stories is very common with Indian romancewriters. बाण's कादम्बरी is a classic illustration. This sort of story-within-story compositions are particularly in favour with Jaina storywriters as the theory of Karman which causes the cycle of births is so much developed and indulged in oft and on in the thelogical disquistions and stories by Jainas. Every Jaina