________________
194
CHAPTER FOUR
descended into Queen Sumitrā's womb. At the proper time Sumitrā bore a jewel of son, the color of a rainy season cloud, with all the favorable marks, a friend of the world. Then the king made an especial eight-day püjā accompanied by bathing (of the images) in all the shrines of the holy Arhats in the city. The king released the captive enemies imprisoned. Who does not live happily at the birth of superior men? Not only did the king bloom with his people but the goddess earth quickly expanded. The king held a bigger festival than he had at Rāma's birth. Who becomes satiated with joy? The king gave him the name Nārāyaṇa; he became known over the earth by another name, Lakşmaņa.
The two infants gradually reached a distinguished childhood marked by pulling their father's beard. The king looked at them, cherished by their nurses, again and again with extreme joy, as if they were other arms of his own. They passed from lap to lap of the councilors, raining nectar, as it were, on the laps of the kings by their touch. Gradually they grew up, always dressed in blue and yellow, and wandered about, shaking the earth with their footsteps. They acquired all the arts gradually, the teachers of the arts made into (mere) witnesses, like heaps of merit embodied. Very strong, they split mountains with a light blow of their fist as easily as a dish of snow. When their bows were strung on the drilling-ground, the sun trembled and remained high from fear of being hit. Considering as straw the power of enemies because of their strength of arm, they looked upon their own expertness with weapons just as a diversion. The king considered himself invincible to gods, asuras, et cetera, because of their great skill in weapons and missiles and strength of arm.
Return to Ayodhyā (202-203) One day, gathering resolution from the power of the princes, the king went to Ayodhyā, the capital of the
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
