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The Råmāyaṇa Version of Dhanesvara Sürt
173
favour of his pregnant wife and became an ascetic. After a number of kings that rule over Ayodhyā we come to Dasaratha? (vv. 1-92).
Dasaratha has four wives Kausalyä, Kaikeyi, Sumitra and Suprabha. He is presented by Kausalya with a son, whose birth has been announced by four lucky dreams, and by Sumitrā too a son whose birth has been indicated by seven lucky dreams. The first is named Rāma - Padma, and the second Lakşmaņa. His sons Bharata and Satrughna are born to him by Kaikeyi and Supraphā respectively. Rāma and Laksmana were greatly devoted to each other so too were Bharata and Satrughna (vv. 93-98).
Now in the town of Mithila there was a king named Janaka, born of Vipulā and Vasavaketuo (of the Hari-vamsa). He had a wife called Videhā who gave birth to twin children, a boy and a daughter. The boy was kidnapped by a god called Pingala (on account of enmity in previous life). But later on taking pity on him he left him in a forest of the Vaitădhya mountain. Now Candragati, lord of Rathanūpura, took him up and brought him up as his own son and named him Bhamandala. Janaka, in spite of his vigorous search, was not able to trace his boy. He named his daughter Sitä. She attained to youth. Janaka thought of arranging her Svayamvara.
The genealogy of the Ikşvāku family given here entirely agrees with the one given by Vimala Sūri. We are told here of an episode relating to king Anaranya and the image of Pārsva, the 23rd Tirthankara, which, in brief, is as follows :King Anaranya, though oppressed by 107 diseases on account of Karman done in previous lives, sets outon the world conquest. In the course of his march he reaches Surāştra country and Satrunjaya mountain sacred to Jains. Through a sea-faring merchant named Ratnasara he obtains the image of Pārsva; at the mere sight of that image all his diseases leave him. At night he dreams a dream in which the diseases tell him that they tormented him simply because in a previous birth he had molested a Jain monk and that at the sight of the image of Pārsva they are powerless to harass him any longer. He lives there worshipping the Pārsva-image. One day a monk possessed of knowledge arrives there and tells the king and others of the greatness and unfailing power of Pārsva-image. The king founds a city Ajayapura and erects a temple to Pārsva; and that becomes a sacred place. This episode is inserted by the poet with the obvious aim of glorifying the place of pilgrimage. Instead of Kausalya Vimala has Aparajita. In the Pc. three dreams (A lion, the sun and the moon) annouce the birth of Rāma and three dreams (Laksms, the moon and the sun) that of Lakşmaņa. Here we have four (three+elephant) and seven (three+a lion, ocean, fire, elephant) dreams that announce the birth of the two sons respectively. It is, of course, incorrect when Weber says, "Prince Janaka is called here Vásavaketu". He is also incorrect when he says ".... he had a son named Vajrabāhu who begot Purandara". In fact Vajrabāhu and Pūrandara are brothers. See I.A. Vol. XXX.
