Book Title: Treasury of Jain Tales
Author(s): V M Kulkarni
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Previous | Next

Page 257
________________ 200 expected them all to change their dresses after their meal to men's attire, put on armour and take the weapons that men use, fasten the shields to their hands, make a great show of fight making loud noise and run helter Skelter all over the forest settlement in a fairly drunken state. But Khandasri did not exactly know how to explain it to her husband. When her husband saw her in her pensive mood, he asked her what was wrong. Then she explained her desire and her husband quickly agreed that it could easily be worked out. When her period was complete she gave birth to a son. The usual rites of birth were celebrated for ten nights. On the eleventh day Vijaya called all his friends and relatives to a dinner and explained to them the pregnancy desire that his wife had felt. He gave to his son the name Abhagnasena, that is one whose army was invincible. The child was brought up most carefully by five nurses and when he grew up to be a young man, he was married to eight young damsels in whose company he spent his time enjoying all sorts of pleasures in his mansion. When his father died Abhagnasena was made the leader of the whole group and the occasion was celebrated appropriately. He continued the father's tradition of torturing and tormenting the people of the villages around. He even went a step further and destroyed some of the villages. In time to come, the displaced people from these villages reported the matter to the king of Purimatāla and begged of him to protect them from the dreaded decoit Abhagnasena. The king listened to the whole of the account of the harassment most patiently. Though he was greatly disturbed he would not like to act out of impatience. Nevertheless, he asked his general to surround the whole area and capture Abhagnasena but the spies of Abhagnasena managed to convey a forewarning to him. He collected his own people and tried to work out a strategy. They concluded that instead of waiting for the army of the king to reach their territory in the forest, it would be much better to attack it when they are still on the way. All the thieves got ready to attack the king's army. When they actually met it, the thieves attacked it, defeated it and drove it away. Whatever little was left of the army was collected Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468