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Sugandha: Sweet Fragrance
585
of the two pravartinis of her gaccha.34 This biography, unlike most of the others, was not written by a sādhvi but by a śrāvika, Bhaṁvara Bāi Rāmapuriyā, who, ever since she became a widow at the age of thirteen, has been living at close quarters to the sādhvis.35
How Dākhi became Sādhvi Vicakşaņa or an amazing struggle in the name of vairāgya 36
Jethi Bai was born at Amarāvati, a town of Mahārāștra, into a family whose origins were in the district of Jodhapura. Like the majority of Māravādis settled in other regions or overseas for business or professional reasons, the parents of Jethi Bāi had family members in their native village to which they frequently returned. The horoscope of the child revealed, so it was said, an unusual degree of courage and predicted that she would become an ascetic of great renown. In the meantime, she was an affectionate, friendly and
nt child. They called her Dākhi, from drāksā, bunch of grapes. In accordance with the custom of the day, she was affianced in childhood and up to the age of cight she knew the life of a happy family. The sudden death of her father was a terrible shock for her, for not only did she now lack his parental affection, but she began to ask the reason for her father's being so abruptly snatched from her. 'Life changed for her. Having neither brothers nor sisters, she remained alone with her mother, a young widow who was obliged to yield to the customs of her community. After many enquiries, this latter managed to trace the whereabouts of her cousin Sadhvi Suvarana and, taking Dākhi with her, stayed with her several times. Thus Dākhi came into contact with the sădhvis whom she proceeded to astonish by the liveliness of her intelligence. The mother of Dākhi had decided to receive dikşā when her daughter married the young man to whom she
34 I met her in Dilli in 1972 and 1975; she gave me the biography of Sadhvi Punya and also her own, as well as a collection of her pravacanas: The Voice of Vicakşaņa.
35 It is fairly rare for a biography of a sādhvi to be written in her life-time. There are two further instances, the biographies of Mahāsati Pannādevi and of Mahāsati Yaśakusvara, both Sthānakavāsis.
36 Cf. Rāmapuriya, 1966, chs. 2-5; 10-20.
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