Book Title: Story Of Rama In Jain Literature
Author(s): V M Kulkarni
Publisher: Saraswati Pustak Bhandar

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 209
________________ The Rāmāyana of Acārya Hemacandra 191 Now in Ratha-nüpura. Sahasrara's wife Citra-Sundari dreamt a dream, auspicious as it was, some god conceived in her womb. In due course she had a pregnancy-longing of enjoying sexual intercourse with Indra. As this longing was dimcult to express and difficult to be satisfied, she grew very weak and emaciated. Her husband pressed her to reveal her longing. On knowing it he through Māyā assumed the form of Indra and satisfied her longing. In due course she gave birth to a son who was, because of the longing during pregnancy, named as Indra. When he attained to youth, his father appointed him king, and himself became a monk. This Indra regarded himself as Indra, the overlord of gods and bringing under his sway all the Vidyādhara kings, appointed, like God Indra, the guardians of the world, etc., and ruled over his kongdom, being surrounded by Vidyadharas bearing the names of Indra's Partvára. Māli felt jealous of Indra's glory, went to Vaitadhya but was killed in the fight. The Raksasa and Vänara armies being routed, again sought shelter in Pătála-Lanká under the leadership of Sumali. Indra appointed Vaiśramana as the ruler of Lankā. Now Ratnasrava was born of Sumáli. He once went to a park to acquire supernatural lores. There he met Kaikast, the sister of Kausika who was the wife of Visravă and of whom Vaiśramaņa, the lord of Lankā was born. At Kaikasi's request Ratnaśravă married her. Kaikasi once dreamt a dream in which she saw a lion entering her womb. As a result of her conception she behaved dreadfully. In due course she gave birth to a son with a span of life covering 14000 years. As a young baby he took out that wonderful necklace strung with nine gems (- which was a gift by Bhima, the Raksasa chief to Meghavahana, the founder of the Raksasa dynasty -) and wore it round his neck. His face reflected in those nine gems. Hence his father named him Dasamukha. It was predicted that he, who would drag out of the casket the Ratnahara, would become Ardha-Cakrin. Kaikasi in course of time gave birth to Bhanukarņa (also known as Kumbhakarna whose birth was announced by a Bhanu-svapna), Candranakha (also known as Sūrpanakhā) whose nails resembled the crescent-moon, and Vibhisana (whose birth was announced by Saśánka-svapna). 9. Vimala states her dohada thus : Icchāmi surahivassa sampatti Pc. VII, w. 4-5. Ravisena expresses her dohada in these words: ........väńchami bhoktumindrasya sampadam pp. VII. v. 8. Whereas Hemacandra take her dohada to be : Dohadastasyāḥ sakrasambhogalaksanah It is indeed extraordinary that Hemacandra should so interpret that longing. The interpretation of the name Dasamukha given here is the same as found in the Pc. and the Pp. 10.

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278