Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 6

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

Page 357

OMNISCIENCE OF MAHÄVIRA
317 the most wicked. There were favorable speech and abusive speech. I did not hear yours. An evil fate intervened. By jumping off a precipice, by a sword, fire, or water, I shall kill myself. For that is suitable to my deeds.”
Consumed by the disease of grief, wishing to die, Kūņika, enlightened by the ministers, cremated Sreņika's body. The ministers saw the king wasting away day by day from excessive grief, as if from tuberculosis, and thought: “ The king will certainly die from, grief and the kingdom will perish. We must contrive some distraction for him under pretext of devotion to his father.” They themselves engraved on an old copper-plate the words, “Even though dead, a father accepts oblations, et cetera, given by a son.” They had that read before the king and the king himself, deceived by them, gave oblations to his father. From that time began the giving of oblations. “Father, though dead, eats what I give him," the simple-minded king thought and gradually gave up grieving, like a man with fever the change in body-fluids. But again and again grief came to Kūņika, according to the axiom of a lion's backward look, when he saw his father's couch, seat, et cetera. Sorrow blooming again and again, like the stem of the moonseed, the king became entirely unable to stay in Rājagsha.
Founding of Campā (181–189)245 “I shall make a city elsewhere," and the king instructed experts in architecture to look for a suitable place. Looking everywhere for a suitable place, the architects saw somewhere in the district a large campaka tree. They said: “It is not in a garden. No stream is apparent here. It is not encircled by a basin of water. Nevertheless, it has a wonderful appearance. Oh ! the great number of large branches. Oh ! the wonderful leaves and creepers. Oh ! the abundance of blossoms. Oh ! the fragrance of the blossoms. Oh ! the one
245 See App. I.