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ŚRENIKA, MEGHAKUMĀRA AND NANDIŞEŅA 161 from afar. Śreņika went with his sons horseback to bring him back and surrounded him like a deer found in hunting. The elephant did not pay the least attention to the enticements nor the abuse of the horsemen, as if he were possessed by a powerful Vyantara. But when he heard the voice of Nandişeņa and saw him, knowing the former birth 164 fully from clairvoyance, he became quiet. At once Nandişeņa took hold of a girth and, his foot supported on another one, mounted the elephant with three handholds. At Nandişeņa's order, making the exercises, a bite, et cetera as if trained, he was reduced to the state of being subject to the tying-post. Śreņika gave the elephant a frontlet and made him a recipient of favor like an heir-apparent.
There were other sons, Kāla and others celebrated for their valor, of King Sreņika from his high-born wives.
And now the Teacher of the World wandering for the enlightenment of souls capable of emancipation, attended by gods and asuras, went to the city Rājagsha. The Lord adorned a samavasaraņa made by the gods, resplendent with a caityatree at the shrine Guņaśila. When he had heard that Śrī Vira had stopped in a samavasaraṇa, King Śreņika and his sons went with great magnificence to pay homage to him. King Śreņika circumambulated the Lord, bowed, sat down in the proper place, and recited a hymn of praise with devotion.
Stuti (366-374)165
“O Protector, let other qualities of yours be victorious over the world. The three worlds have been conquered by a high degree of tranquillity, (like) an actual material form. Meru was reduced to straw, the ocean made into a small puddle from delusion by those evil men who disowned you, the most to be revered among the revered. A crest-jewel fell from their hands; nectar was received uselessly by those by whom,
164 357. See above, p. 158.
165 This is the fifteenth in the Vitarāgastotra, p. 196. 21M
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