Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 216

Sec. III]
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SÚTRA
191
It is to be observed with a great admiration how he reported to his wife, Devānandā the account of his attending the holy sermons of Lord Mahāvīra, delivered at the Bahuśālaku Caitya, immediately after returning from there with a glad. dened heart.
Then Rsabhadatta drove together with Devānanda in a bullock-cart to the said Cuityto attend the holy teachings of the Master with a burning spiritual urge. They, being pleased and satisfied with the religious discourse of Lord Mahāvīra, got initiated by him and joined his ascetic order by renouncing the world'.
In the middle class family of Samkha and Utpalā?, the Sramaṇopāsaka and Sramangpāsikā of Srāvustī also, a burning example of a happy conjugal life is found thus that they led an ideal life of the husband and wife with mutual love, faith, devotion and honour endowed with the richness and glow of their pious hearts in the worldly affairs and worship.
Even in the low class houseless wandering family, like that of Mankha Mankhali and Bhadrās, the parents of Gośāla Mankhaliputra, such a peaceful and happy relation existed between this couple that they had borne all hardships and poverty of their household life with calmness, patience and unflinching faith in and devotion to each other in their up and down journeys of the mundane world. But these material sufferings could not lead to the breach of the family peace and their separation from each other.
Thus it is stated that the houseless Mankha Mankbali, accompanied by his pregnant wife, Bhadrā, took shelter in the cowshed of the Brāhmana Gobahula at Saravana, after wandering from village to village, to pass the rainy season there, without getting any residence anywhere in that town.
It was here in this cowshed that their son, Gośāla Man. kbaliputra was born to them in the midst of poverty, hardships
i Bhs, 9, 33, 382. $ 10, 15, 1, 540.
* 10, 12, 1, 437-38. 4 Ib, 15, 1, 540.