Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 5

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

Page 83

52
CHAPTER TWO
with the money. I reached Yamunādvipa and by making trips back and forth to Antadvipa and other cities, I made eight crores of gold. Then I started by water toward my own country. The boat went to pieces and I reached one plank. By means of it I swam across the ocean for seven days and came to a shore called Udumbarāvativela. finally reached a city on it, named Rajapura, and outside of it I went to a hermitage, Uddamapādapa.56 There I saw a wandering mendicant with the triple staves named Dinakaraprabha, and I told him about my family, et cetera. He, well-disposed, treated me like a son. One day he said to me: You seem to want money. Therefore come, son. We shall go to a mountain and there I shall give you a liquid by which you can have crores of gold as you like. '
With this promise I set out with him joyfully and in the late afternoon reached a large forest with many magicians. Going on the mountain-slope, we came to a large cave closed with many stones worked by machinery, resembling the mouth of Yama. The Tridaṇḍin opened the door by a charm and we entered the large cave named Durgapātāla. After wandering over much ground, we reached a well, the site of the liquid, four cubits wide, terrifying as a door to hell. Go inside the well and take the liquid with a gourd,' he told me and I descended into the well by means of a chair with a rope which he held.
6
6
At twenty-four feet down, I saw the liquid surrounded by a wall and I was stopped there by a man. I said to him: ' I am a merchant, Carudatta. A holy man had me enter for the liquid. Why do you prevent me?' He replied: 'I am a merchant. Desiring money, I was hurled by that Tridaṇḍin into the well of liquid like a piece of meat into an enclosure. He, wicked, went away. The lower part of my body is eaten away by the liquid. Do not enter here. I will hand you the liquid in the gourd. Then I handed him the gourd and he filled it with the liquid and tied it beneath the chair and I shook the rope.
56 221. Or perhaps uddāmapādapa is an adjective, with large trees.
•
"