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the town and the soldiers killed eight of his father's uncles which he was made to watch. Then they whipped him and also made him eat small pieces of flesh and drink blood. They led him further to another square in the town and once again they made him watch the deaths of eight of his aunts. In the third square, they killed eight more of his uncles and in another square the wives of these uncles. In the fifth square his brothers and in the sixth their wives, in the seventh square his father's sons-in-law and in the eighth the daughters... this is how they went on killing all his relatives and friends in the eighteen different squares of the city which he was made to watch. They rounded up the day by giving him lashes of whips and pieces of flesh to eat and blood to drink. Gautama wondered what sort of sins he had committed in his former existence so that he should be punished like this. He decided to ask his master Mahavira the full story of this unfortunate man. This is what Gautama learnt from his master :
Long ago, in Purimatäla, there lived a man called 'Ninnaa' who was a big merchant of eggs. He collected eggs from the surrounding villages with the help of a number of men that he had employed. They collected a variety of eggs of crows, owls, pigeons, cranes, hens, water fowls and several such birds that were found around. Ninnaa paid all his men in cash or in food. They all enjoyed eating some of the eggs that they had collected which they cooked either in frying pans or roasting pots or baking ovens or on burning charcoal. Ninnaa himself ate a variety of eggs and enjoyed all sorts of wines. Since his way of life was sinful and his life had a long, long span, the evils that he had committed accumulated to such a monstrous measure that after his death, he was sent in the third region of hell as a hell-being and kept there for the maximum period of seven sågaropamas. After this long span was over, he became the son of Khandasri, the wife of Vijaya, who was the leader of the thieves. During her pregnancy, Khandasri had a pregnancy desire to invite all the wives of friends, kinsmen and near relatives, the wives of all the five hundred thieves to a meal at her place. She had said that they should take their baths, perform the usual rites, decorate themselves with all ornaments and come to her house to eat and drink and spend the time in the most carefree manner. She
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