Two Prakrit Versions of Manipati Charitra

Author(s): R Williams
Publisher: Royal Asiatic Society

Page 36

THE STORIES
23 wife had a dohada and that the privilege given to Sețuka was to receive a dinār's worth of food in alms from every house.
The story of Sețuka is also retold in essentially the same form in the eleventh parvan of the Trişaşți-salākā-puruşa-caritra and in the Kathā-ratnākara. .
The frog-bodied god, Dardurānka-deva is an interesting figure who may well belong to an older folklore. Two legends seem to attach to him, for the Jñata-dharma-kathāḥ2 has a version different from the story of Sețuka. In Rājagļha in the time of King Sainya there lived a jeweller named Nanda. He heard the preaching of Mahāvīra and became a lay-disciple but later lapsed into error. He made great benefactions to the town of Rājagrha and enjoyed the gratitude of its citizens, but fell ill and died despite lavish offers of rewards to doctors. Reborn as a frog in a tank which he himself had constructed he there heard people praising Nanda. Remembering his former life he realised his errors, and was on his way to worship Mahāvīra when he was killed by a horse's hoof. With his last breath he recited a religious formula and was reborn as the god Dardura in the Saudharma heaven.
This version of the origin of Dardurāńka-deva is found in much less detail in the Srāddha-guna-vivaranas of Jinamaņdana Gaņin.
The name Sețuka (water-melon man') is curious. His presentation as an incorrigible glutton who brings to mind Mūladeva's reflection that 'hunger is the chief characteristic of the brahmin caste '4 is consistent with the anti-brahmanical tendency of the MPC.
2.(c) Kālašaukarika and Sulasa
This again is part of the Srenika legend cycle and is found in the Av.5 An account of Sulasa's refusal to kill buffalo is given in explanation of verses 12 and 13 of the Dharma-ratnaprakaraņas :
kūro kiliţtha-bhāvo saminam dhammam na sāhium tarai See the translation by Hertel: Das Maerchenmeer, Munich 1920, pp. 8 ff. * See Hüttemann: Die Jñāta-Erzählungen. • Atmånanda Sabhã ed. Bhavnagar 1914. erisă ceva bambhana-jãi bhukkha-pahāņā havai. Avasyaka-sutra Agamodaya-Samiti ed. Purva-bhāga, p. 681. Atmananda Sabhã ed. Bhavnagar 1914, p. II.