Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 4

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

Page 232

BIRTH, MARRIAGE, AND EXILE OF RĀMA AND LAKŞMAŅA 197 his father's realm, Kundalamandita heard dharma from Muni Municandra and became a layman. Having died just as he was seeking (his) realm, he became the son of Videhā, the wife of Janaka in the great city Mithilā.
Sarasā became a chaplain's daughter after wandering through births, named Vegavati, became a mendicant, died, and went to Brahmaloka.
When she fell, she became the daughter of Videhā, a twin to the soul of Kundalamaņdita. At the proper time Videhā bore a son and daughter at the same time.
Kidnaping of Bhāmaņdala (238–249) At that time the sage Pingala died and became a god in Saudharma. With clairvoyant knowledge he looked for his enemy Kundalamandita of a former birth, and he saw that he had become the son of Janaka. Angered because of his former hostility, he seized him as soon as he was born, and reflected:
.."Shall I kill him quickly by crushing him on a stone ? And yet I experienced in many births for a long time the fruit of the evil deed which I committed in a former birth. By chance having become an ascetic, I have reached such a rank. How shall I go through endless births again by killing the child ?"
After these reflections the god decorated the child with ornaments, earrings, et cetera, so he had the appearance of a falling star, and dropped him gently in the garden Nandana, as if on a cushion, in the town Rathanūpura in the southern row on Vaitādhya. Candragati saw him and thought in bewilderment, "What is this?" and went to the garden Nandana as a result of the child's fall. He saw there the child adorned with divine ornaments and the Vidyadhara-lord, who had no son, took him himself and made him his son. He delivered the child to his wife Puspavati and had a proclamation made in the city, “The queen has borne a son today." The king and the townsmen