Book Title: Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 4
Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra
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218
CHAPTER FIVE
by me," Sinhodara will be hostile to me, if I do not bow to him.? Reflecting thus, he had an idea and had an image of Munisuvratanātha made of gems set in his ring. Bowing to that image in his ring, he deceived King Sinhodara. For deceit is a device against one more powerful. Some malicious person told King Sinhodara the story of Vajrakarņa. Truly, the malicious destroy everything. At once Sinhodara was angry, hissing like a snake; and some man went and told Vajrakarņa about his anger. Vajrakarņa asked the man plainly, 'How did you know that he was angry at me?' and he explained:
Episode of Vidyudanga (19-30) In the city Kundapura there is a merchant, Samudrasangama, a layman; his wife is Yamunā; and I am their son, Vidyudanga. In course of time I grew up, and came to Ujjayinī with merchandise to buy and sell. There I saw a doe-eyed courtesan, Kāmalatā, and became at once the abode of the arrows of Kāma. I made a meeting with her with the idea, "I shall spend one night with her," and was bound firmly by love like a deer by a snare. The large amount of money which had been acquired by my father with difficulty during his whole life, I wasted in six months, dominated by her. One day she said to me, "Give me earrings like those of Sridharā, the chief-queen of Sinhodara.” “I have no money; for you I will steal them," saying, I rashly entered the palace at night by a tunnel. I heard Sridharā ask Siihodara, “Lord, why do you not sleep, as if you were depressed ?" Sinhodara said, "How can I sleep so long as Vajrakarņa, opposed to bowing to me, lives? At dawn I am going to kill him and his friends, children, and relatives. Let the night pass for me sleepless until then, my dear."
After hearing that I abandoned the theft of the earrings and hurried here to tell you because of affection for a co-religionist.'
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