Some Jaina Canonical Sutras

Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Royal Asiatic Society

Page 64

50
SOME JAINA CANONICAL SOTRAS
The five stories that follow are of the same pattern. The seventh story concerning Sāraṇa, a son of Vasudeva and Dhāriņi, reads almost like that of Prince Gotama. Here Sāraņa studies the fourteen pūrvas that are traditionally known to have been incorporated into the twelfth angu called Destivāda. In the same category we are to place all the remaining stories but that of Gaja Sukumāra. Strangely nough. Prince Sumukha is described as a son of king Baladeva of Dvāravatī by his queen Dhāriņi, whereas in the case of the remaining princes the parents are Vasudeva and Dhāriņi. Dāruka who is mentioned in the Great Epic as the charioteer of Kșşņa Vāsudeva is counted here among the sons of Vasudeva and Dhārini.
Turning at last to the story of Prince Gaja, we notice that he is introduced as the eighth or last son of Devaki, mother of Krşņa Vāsudeva, who was born in her womb. According to the Pāli Ghata Jātaka (No. 355), Devagabbhā gave birth to ten sons including Kanha Vasudeva and Baladeva. The Jaina legend gives an altogether different account of the circumstances under which Devaki's earlier-born seven sons were stealthily taken away from her by the god Harinaigameşi and brought up in the house of Nāga and Sulasă. She gave birth to six or seven sons, exactly resembling Nalakubera, in fulfilment of a prediction made to this effect by the Jaina recluse Atimukta. All but Krsna Vasudeva renounced the world and moved about in the country as disciples of Aritthanemi. Devaki, too, is represented as a queen of Vasudeva, king of Dvāravati. Krşņa Vāsudeva tried in vain to keep his brother Gaja in the world, and his mistake was that he had brought in Somā, a handsome daughter of the Brahmin Saumila, to be his brother's wife. The Brahmin was so awfully angry with Gaja that he had renounced the world to pass as à recluse abandoning his daughter. On seeing the latter passing one evening by the burning ground of Mahākāla, the Brahmin took a piece of a broken pot from a burning pyre and threw it on his head. The princely recluse bore calmly the pain without ar ful feeling towards the oppressor. În that blissful mood of soul he obtained the supreme knowledge and vision and passed away. The great teacher Aritthanemi exhorted Krsna Väsudeva not to bear wrath against Saumila who even by spiteful action lent indirectly an aid to his younger brother Gaja.
The fourth division sets forth ten glaring examples of the Jaina virtue based on the personal stories of Jāli, Mātali, Upatāli, Puruşasena, Vārisena, Pradyumna, Sāmba, Ani
4B