________________
Rituals and Healing: The Case of.... : 65 successor Kumārapāla to adopt the vows of a Jain layman), Hemacandra told a story with a rather different moral. Once, there was a merchant's wife, who sought a means for restoring the affections of her husband, who had deserted her for another woman. She obtained a spell that was guaranteed to put her husband in such a state that she could lead him about with a string. When she applied the spell, she discovered that this was a literal promise, not a figurative one, as her husband was transformed into a bull. She led him to a pasture to graze, and sat beneath a tree and wept. There she overheard Siva telling Bhavānī that in the shade of that very tree was an herb that would restore her husband to his human form. The woman gathered every plant she could find growing beneath the tree, and forced the bull to eat them all, with the result that he was restored to his human shape. The moral of the tale, according to Hemacandra, was that just as the man was restored by the herb, even though no one knew which particular herb did the trick, so in the Kali Yuga a wise person should obtain salvation by supporting all religious traditions, even though no one could say with absolute certainty which tradition it was that brought about that salvation.' So in this case visualization of power through ritualistic symbols used in healing produced a sense of order and transformation which in turn created multiple layers of bonds thereby consolidating the social power and at times political and economic control ones as well.
In continuation to the above argument one could see the expansion of Jainism in early medieval Rajasthan in the justified sense of ritual and healing. Most of the Rajasthani Jain clans claim their origin from Rajput (warrior ruling caste) lineage only. The legends describe the conversion of violent Rajputs to non-violent Jainism due to some miraculous healing only. In the Jain legends, the affliction or problem often besets a king directly, but sometimes indirectly through his son or sons (reflecting the theme of patrilireal descent, which was naturally central to tales concerning the origin of patriclans). Snakebites were frequently mentioned. There had been instances of illness of other kinds, defeat or imminent defeat, impoverishment, lack of progeny, and so forth. The situation was
