Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 6

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

Page 73

33
MAHAVIRA'S BIRTH AND MENDICANCY Lord was playing. The Lord was playing at āmalaki67 with the princes and he (the god) assumed the form of a serpent by magic and stood under a tree. Then, terrified, the princes ran here and there; the Lord smiled, picked up the serpent like a rope and threw it on the ground. The princes, ashamed, went there again to play. The god assumed the form of a prince and went there, too, and all climbed a tree. The Lord reached the top of the tree, first of the princes. Yet what is this to him who will reach the top of the universe ?68
There the Blessed One looked like the sun on the peak of Meru. The others, hanging on the branches, looked like monkeys. The Blessed One won a bet he had made: Whoe should win in this should ride on the backs of the others. Vira mounted the princes and rode them like horses. Foremost among the strong, he mounted the god's back also. Then the god with malicious intentions assumed the terrifying form of a goblin and began to grow, exceeding mountains in size. He resembled Takşaka with his tongue in a mouth equal to Pātāla; he resembled a forest-fire on a lofty peak with tawny hair on the top of his head. He had terrible fangs shaped like saws; eyes burning like fireplaces; awful nostrils like caves in mountains; frightful eyebrows curved in frowns like serpents. While he was still growing, the Lord turned him into a dwarf by striking him on the back with his powerful fist. Thus with his own eyes he saw the Blessed One's strength as described by Indra. In his own form he bowed to the Lord and went to his own house.
When he was past eight, the Lord's father began his education; and at that moment the lion-throne of Bidaujas shook. Knowing by clairvoyance the remarkable simplicity of his parents, Indra approached him, saying, “ The very idea of the Omniscient being a pupil !” The Master was seated on the
67 106. This is probably a boys' game now played in Gujarat, āmalāpippali. It might be called 'touch-and-go.
68 109. I.e. Lokāgra, the name of the top portion of the universe occupied by the Siddhas. 5M