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6.3
The Mystic Pattern
6 ANALYSIS
to interest themselves in the affair of their descendants".
Vasunandin does not employ STAN313 in Sr, what we would like to expect, but instead the equivalents KRAND, VRAT, LAP, and RU/ RUD occur. Those verbal roots convey the idea of repeated acts of crying or mourning to the mind of the reader. Not always the strict sense of something "crackling", when it is cast into the flames, but in the sense of a large number of shrieks reverberating and thus producing echos. It is noteworthy that the names of the hells in Buddhist religious texts are all more or less designed with reference to the sounds of their inhabitants. This means that the designations of the hells bring to mind the yelling, bellowing, howling, mourning, clapping of teeth, and shrieking of the inhabitants. "Atata" reminds us of a clapping sound, a vibration, or an echo of a voice. It might evoke the association of shivering with cold. "Hahava" and "Ahaha" refer to the bellowing of the voice of the inhabitants of these hells, and the same do the names of the hells "Huhuva" and "Ababa". The Chinese transliterations of these names are for instance "Hou-Hou", "Xiu-Xiu", etc. Besides, the hell with the designation "Raurava" is sometimes transliterated into Chinese "Lo-lo-po" which calls to mind the resounding of frightening voices of the inhabitants of that hell.314 The sound of "shrieking" recalls to mind the shrieks of the injured creatures which are wallowed and burned alive. In Vasunandin's text all creatures are depicted as sentient beings crying for help (karuņam puņo ruvai and karuņa-palāva pakuvamta). In some Jain ritual texts we find also the intersections of the mgs. with the idea of the "five fires" of purification.315 In the Jain interpretation of this idea the requirements of Vedic ritual are identified with virtues such as self-control, compassion, etc. Fire stands as a symbol of the whole complex of selfpurification and purgation.
6.3 The Mystic Pattern If we want to evaluate the key motif in the verses of Sr (57-205) we should make evident the author's standpoint and give some suggestions how this standpoint differs from the views and attitudes of other philosophical schools and sects. The views of Indian philosophers are different in defining the ultimate truth based on sets of theoretical categories and the practical ethics res-ulting there-upon in the time of Vasunandin. By quoting examples from
313 STAN “to thunder"; "to roar"; "to reverbarate". Cf. Whitney 1885 (1945):191; for Pkt. thanamti see Ratnachandra 1923 [1988], Vol. III, p. 93. Present tense derived from ✓ STAN occurs in the canonical Suya-gada II.5.1 (kalunam thanamti).
314 See Nos. 3294-3297; 3307; 3317 in Chen 2004. Further Bang, W./ Rachmati 1935, Laut 1996; (et al.) 1998; Demoto 2009. 315See further Handiqui 1949:288 on Somadeva's Yt, chapter VIII.
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