Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 3

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

Page 366

APPENDIX I.
ADDITIONAL, NOTES
P. 2 (4. I. 22). I have not come across any stereotyped
number of Sris, but the Bhis are seven: fear of the same genus-on the part of men of other men, etc. (ihaloka); fear of other genera-on the part of men of gods, animals, etc. (paraloka); fear of thieves, etc. (ādāna); fear of outside omens on the part of people in houses, etc., at night, etc., without regard for external causes, i.e. imaginary (akasmāt); fear in regard to livelihood (ājīva); fear of death (maraņa); fear of censure by people for misconduct (aśloka). Pravac., 1320, com.
p. 388a. P. II (4. 1. 144). Either Hemacandra's usual accurate
knowledge of natural history fails in regard to spiders or there is some species of Indian spider with habits of which I can find no trace. The comparison of people ensnared by karma with spiders and spiderwebs is a favourite one with Hemacandra. He uses it in 2. I. 53; 4. 1. 144; 5. I. 127; 6. 6. 222. In three of these lālā, 'saliva,' is the substance of which the web is made, though the thread really comes from the spider's abdomen. In 2. 1. 153 he says "a man surrounds himself by self-made snares of karma, like a spider with webs made from its own saliva.' The verb used is veştayati. As the spider does sit in his own web, the comparison is not so far-fetched. But in 4. 1. 144 people are "bewildered” by the threads (tantu) of affection which become snares, like spiders by spider-webs (lālā). The verb used is muh, which does not seem appropriate. Hemacandra does not say here, nor in 5. I. 127, specifically "their own webs”; but again in 6. 6. 222 the soul is bound closely by evil meditation, like a spider by its own threads (tantu).
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