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6.1 The Sound of Shrieking
6 ANALYSIS
Vasunandin employs the participle and the present tense from ✓KRAND291 with kamdamto (157d) and kim kardasi re (142d). In the first case the present participle is used to describe a creature in suffering. The sentient being is crying when it is injured again and again by the sharp leaves of the trees and bushes falling down on it (asi-patta-vana). In the second case, with kim kamdasi 're in Śr (142d), the author describes the situation of an infernal being, which is approached and scolded for its wailing by other creatures of hell: "Hey, why do you cry?". The fierce inhabitants of hell could be identified with the Asuras of (170), in other texts they are designed more or less as servants29 s292 of the lord of the lower world.
We find a slightly different passage in the canonical Uttarajjhāyā XIX.293 In this passage the creature is described as helpless. It is crying, when it is dissolved in the fire, producing shrieks during the process of being burned by the flames in the regions of hell. In another Jain text, Ts VI.12, occurs the verbal action noun derived from a + √ KRAND. The category ex-amined in this chapter is "affliction". It is divided into sub-categories, such as pain, sorrow, heart-burning, crying, injury of life, and bewailing.294 In the commentary Sarvârtha-siddhi on Ts VI.12-13 Pujyapāda states that it is the "evil motive" behind the infliction of pain, which causes the inflow of the specific kind of karmic matter.
We find more instances for the use of KRAND outside Jainism in the same context in medieval texts such as the Buddhist Pañca-gati-dipanam. 295 But 291 Cf. KRAND and a + √ KRAND: 1. "to roar; to make sounds like wind and water; to creak" 2. "to call out piteously; to cry with sorrow; to weep; to lament"; 3. "to shout, to invoke, to cry for help". Generically, ✓ KRAND is related with Latin clamor: "shouting; screaming". See Whitney 1985 [1945]:75; MW: pp.128, 319; Sheth 1923: 266. In the Buddhist Pali canon present tense forms from KRAND appear several times, for instance in the commentary of the Peta-vatthu (43, 160, 262, cited according to Rhys Davids/ Stede 1921-1925:14). These forms refer to the wailing of "hungry ghosts". For a translation see Hecker 2001, especially 371. Furthermore, Abegg 1956 mentions a legend in the Garuda-Purana ("Preta-Kalpa" VII.17ff.) which contains the key motif of the Indian "ghost story". A "death spirit" appears in front of a faithful man and asks for help. See Abegg 1956:103, note 3, also: "Babhruvahana and the ghost".
292 See also Ruben 1939.
293 The verses in Uttarajjhāyā XIX.49-50 describe the suffering of creatures in the grounds of hell. The author of this text places emphasis on crucial words and phrases by making use of alliterations. The choice of words suggests a hissing sound which imitates the noises of liquids and seeds cast into the fire. In Uttarajjhāyā XIX.51 rasamto stands in the place of kamdamto.
294 See Dixit 1974:242, 305. Skt. akrandana derives from a +✓ KRAND and is translated into English "crying" by Tatia 1994:156. As stated by Jaini 1920:17 this verbal noun denotes the act of "weeping". Jacobi 1906:520 translates the term into German "Schluchzen".
295 See the primary edition in Feer 1884 [1983], (38-39). The predicate in the third plural present tense, Pāli: kandanti, denotes here the weeping of the beings in the infernal
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