Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 4

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

Page 209

174
CHAPTER THREE They saw a young lion approaching, bursting open the ground with blows with his tail, as it were, with the thickets in all directions filled with roars, terrible with the blood of elephants, his eyes blazing, his fangs like a vajrakanda,187 his teeth cruel as a saw, his mane like a flame, his nails resembling iron goads, his breast like a slab of stone. While they stood trembling, as if wishing to enter the ground, like does running away, Maņicūla, a Gandharva, lord of the cave, created by magic the figure of a śarabha and destroyed the lion. After destroying the śarabha and resuming his own form, he and his wife sang a hymn in praise of the Arhats' virtues for their delight. Comfortably established in a cave in the vicinity which he presided over, they set up a statue of the god Munisuvrata and worshipped it.
Birth of Hanumat (194–218) One day Añjanā bore a son, his feet marked with the axe, goad, and discus, like a lioness bearing a superior lion. Vasantatilakā looked after her birth-rites with fuel, water, et cetera collected joyfully by herself. Añjanasundarī took her son on her lap, grieving, tearful, making the cave cry out, as it were, cried out, "What kind of birth-festival can I, wretched, devoid of merit, make for you born in this forest, noble one?” A Vidyādhara, Pratisūrya, saw her crying, approached, and in a gentle voice asked her the cause of her sorrow. Then her friend, weeping, told in detail the reason for Añjanā's grief from the time of the marriage up to the birth of her son, Weeping, he said at once: "I am the lord of Hanupura, son of Sundarīmālā, younger brother of Citrabha, brother of your mother Mānasavegā, child. Thank heaven! I have seen you while you are still living. Be comforted for the future.”
187 188. I have been unable to find any indications of the identity of vajrakanda (a bulbous plant). The Pravac. 236 includes it in a list of underground plants, but gives no information.