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86
CHAPTER SEVEN
Story of the horse (204-220) "Once upon a time there was a merchant, a layman, Jinadharma by name, in the city Padminikhanda. He had a friend, Sāgaradatta, the head of the whole city, who went with him every day to the shrines because of a tendency to right-belief. One day he heard from the sādhus, 'Whoever has statues of the Arhats made, he will obtain dharma, which destroys worldly existence, in another birth.' After hearing this, Sāgaradatta had a golden statue of the Arhat made and had it installed by the sādhus with great magnificence.
Outside the city there was a lofty temple of Siya, which he had had built formerly, and he went there on the winter solstice. Jars of congealed ghi had been stored there before and the priests of Siva began to drag them out in a hurry to eat the ghi. Ants had formed clusters beneath the jars and many of them stuck to the jars and fell in the path. Seeing them crushed by the priests as they walked, Sāgara began to remove them with his garment from compassion. One of the priests said, 'Say! have you been taught by the white mendicants ? ' 75 and crushed the ants with kicks. The merchant Sāgaradatta was embarrassed at once and then looked at their ācārya's face for instructions from him. He too being indifferent to their sin, Sāgara thought: ‘Alas! these men are pitiless. How can they, cruel, be worshipped with the idea they are gurus, when they make themselves fall into an evil state of existence by performing sacrifices ?' With these reflections, Sāgara performed the rites at the insistence (of the ācārya), died without right-belief being found, possessing liberality and good conduct naturally, devoted to the care of wealth gained by large enterprises, and was born as this high-bred horse of yours. I came here to enlighten him. From the power of the Jina's statue he had made
76 212. I.e., by the Svetāmbaras,
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