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66. THE STORY OF SUBHADRA
In the city of Campä there lived a Srăvaka (a lay follower of Jain faith), Jinadatta by name. His daughter Subhadrā was an extremely beautiful young woman. Once a young man, who was a lay follower of Buddhism saw her and fell passionately in love with her. But Jinadatta would not let a man who was a follower of a wrong path, marry his daughter. He insisted that his son-in-law must be the follower of Jain faith. This young man therefore went to Jain monks to accept the Jain faith. But when he was initiated into it, at a fairly early stage the Right Faith stirred his conscience and he
fessed to the monk that what he was doing was in fact for the sake of a girl. But soon enough, he truly accepted the Jain faith, learnt the anuvratas and was confirmed as a srāvaka.
After some time, he repeated his earlier proposal by sending garlands of flowers to Subhadrā. Jinadatta now agreed and the wedding took place. The young man naturally wanted the bride to come to his house and live with him. But the father was worried that his daughter might not be able to adjust herself to the Buddhistic ways of the family of her in-laws. But the young groom took her with him and set up a separate establishment. There was also a lot of ill feeling in the minds of the women in the in-laws' house against Subhadrā because she would not bow to Buddhist monks frequented their house.
These women even conveyed their secret suspicions about Subhadra's relations with Jain monks but her husband would not accept any of it. One day, it so happened that a Jain monk who had come to her for alms complained that some dust particles had blown into his eyes. Subhadrā gently licked the dust out but left the
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