Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 4

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

Page 339

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CHAPTER EIGHT played for three-quarters of an hour. Leaving the water, Bharata stood on the bank like a rājahansa and Bhuvanālankāra went there, after pulling up the post (to which he was tied). Blind from passion, he became free from passion 188 at once at sight of Bharata; and Bharata also experienced extreme joy at the sight of him. Rāma and Saumitri approached hurriedly with their vassals to capture quickly the elephant that was causing the commotion. At Rama's command the elephant was led to the elephantpost by the elephant-drivers.
Munis Deśabhūṣaṇa and Kulabhūṣaṇa came. Padma, Saumitri, and Bharata went with their retinues to pay homage to the munis who had stopped in a garden. After he had paid homage to them, Rāma asked, "Why did my elephant, Bhuvanālankāra, become free from passion at the sight of Bharata ?” Then Keyalin Deśabhūşaņa related:
Bharata's previous births (113–148) "In the past four thousand kings became mendicants with Nābhi's son. They all became ascetics living in the forest, depressed because the Master wandered without eating, maintaining silence.180 Among them two ascetics, Candrodaya and Sūrodaya, sons of kings Prahladana and Suprabha, wandered through existence for a long time. Candrodaya became the son, named Kulankara, of King Harimati in Gajapura by his wife Candralekhā. In the same place Sūrodaya became the son, Śrutirati, of a Brāhman, Viśvabhūti, by his wife Agnikuņdā.
Kulankara became king and, as he was going to the ascetics' hermitage, was addressed by the monk Abhinandana who was clairvoyant. 'There is a serpent in a log brought to burn by an ascetic there who is performing the penance of five fires.100 The serpent was your paternal grandfather, Kșemarkara, in a former birth. Have the
188 108. With a play on spiritual and physical mada. 189 114. See I, 168 ff. 190 119. I.e. a fire in each direction and the sun,
20B