________________
SIXTH INCARNATION AS APARĀJITA 245 he instructed his soldiers: "Quickly kill or capture this low person and his brother. Then bring back my daughter. Let evil conduct bear fruit in him." So instructed by him, the soldiers, clearly of violent disposition, ran forward with weapons raised, like elephants with raised tusks. The divine jewels, the plough, bow, et cetera, then appeared to Aparăjita and Anantavirya. Many Damitāris, the soldiers of Damitāri, first attacked simultaneously with weapons, like clouds with streams of water. They trembled like deer at the effortless fighting of the two man-tigers undisturbed by anger. But when Damitāri heard that they were in flight, angered, he set out, making the sky look like a grove with high trees with his weapons.
“Villain, fight! fight!” “Stop! Stop!” "Comel come!” “Hurl your weapon! hurl it!” “You shall die! You shall die !" "I will spare your life. Give up the master's daughter."
When Kanakaśrî heard these remarks, and similar ones, of the soldiers, which were terrifying from their great conceit and bitter to the ear, she became distressed, whispering, “Husband, husband.” Anantavirya said to her: "Why are you needlessly terrified by your father's noise in the air, which is like the croaking of a frog, foolish girl? Do you see Damitāri and his army being terrified or killed by me, like Maināka by Vajrin."
After comforting Kanakaśrī in this way, Sārngadhara, like a lion that has been threatened, turned with Aparājita to battle. Damitāri's soldiers, destroyers of enemies, surrounded Sārngin by the crore, like moths a light. Then Anantavīrya, a Meru in firmness, angry, created at once an army twice as large as his army by magic art. Damitāri's soldiers began then to fight with it, their bodies wet with the mud of blood, like mountains with redcolored minerals.
"May he be my husband whose headless trunk dances." "I am eager for him as a husband who advances threaded on a lance.” “When will be sport with me, who dyes (in
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
