Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 3

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

Page 285

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CHAPTER TWO shining garlands on her own lap. When she told the dream, the king explained: You will certainly have two faultless daughters.' At the right time two daughters were born; I, the elder, named Kanakaśrī, and you, named Dhanaśrī. The two grew up with mutual affection and attained youth with the collection of arts. Playing here and there as they liked, they went one day to Mt. Giriparvata, a place for recreation on holidays. Gathering sweet fruit and fragrant flowers, they wandered there like divinities of forest and mountain. They observed Muni Nandanagiri, wholly tranquil, in a secluded place. After they had seen him, the two innocent girls circumambulated the muni three times and paid homage with devotion. Muni Nandana gave the blessing Dharmalābha' and delivered a sermon rejoicing their hearts. After hearing the sermon, their hands folded submissively, both said, 'If we are at all suitable persons, give us instruction in dharma.' After considering their suitability, the blessed muni gave them instruction in the twelvefold dharma and they accepted it. They paid homage to the great muni and went to their own house; and always observed dharma carefully.
One day they went out of curiosity to an aśoka-grove filled with pleasure-peaks, streams, tanks, and numerous kinds of trees. While they were playing there different games on a river-bank, a young Khecara, Vīrānga, the lord of Tripura, kidnaped them. His noble-hearted wife, Vajra. śyāmalikā, made him release them, like a lion a pair of does. The girls fell instantly from the sky, like goddesses banished to earth by a curse, on a patch of bamboo on a river-bank in a terrible forest. Knowing that the accident was fatal, they observed a fast, with pure meditation, engaged in the namaskāra. I, Kanakaśrī, became the chief-queen, Navamikā, of the lord of Saudharma, after death, sister. You, Dhanaśrī, became the chief-queen of Dhanada, after death. Then when you fell, you became the daughter, Sumati, of Sîrin. There was an agreement