Treasury of Jain Tales

Author(s): V M Kulkarni
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Page 31

xviii There is another story of Arjunaka, a gardener and his wife Bandhumati who were both devotees of a semi-divine yaksa by name Mudgarapāni. It was originally a folk-tale but effecting a few changes it has been used to establish the superiority of Mahavira's followers over the yakşa, the village deity.
The eleventh anga, Vipākasrtam (the text of the ripening of karman-actions) contains stories on the unhappy and happy consequences of wicked and pious deeds respectively. Gautama Indrabhuti sees various unhappy people, and at his request Mahāvira explains the causes - their evil deeds in a former birth have been responsible for their misfortune. Similarly good deeds in a former birth bring their reward, namely their happiness and good fortune.
The Uttarādhyayana, a mūla-sūtra contains among other things, parables, similes, examples, dialogues and ballads, and legends. Chapter 7 consists mainly of parables. Here we meet with the parable of the ram (edaka) and the parable of the three merchants, taken from common life. When applied to the Dharma it conveys : The capital is human life, the gain is heaven; the loss of that capital means birth as a denizen of hell or a brute animal. The leaf of the tree (chapter 10) is a discourse on the evanescent nature of human life and worldly pleasures. The wicked bullocks' (Chapter XXVII) is a simple but biting criticism against quarrelsome pupils who are a nuisance to the teacher. In Chapter 9 we come across the beautiful itihāsa-dialogue of King Nami. It commends (= praises) the ideal of asceticism as against that of the ksatriya (warrior) ruler. In Chapter 12 we have a lively dialogue between a proud Brähmana and Harikes'a, a despised ascetic, a căndāla by caste; it glorifies self-control and the virtuous life of the pious monks and severely criticises the Vedic sacrifice and the vaingloriousness of the superiority of the Brāhmanas. In Chapter 14 we have the vivacious dialogue between the Purohita and his sons in which the