Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

Author(s): Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur

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YASASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
and Kalinga. Sometimes he dallied with young women in pleasure gardens, and, on other occasions, indulged in water-sports, surrounded by beautiful women, in artificial lakes, perfumed and abounding in flowers, with emerald floors, crystal embankments, golden steps and islets of pearls. Although reckless and self-willed, and addicted to wine, hunting, and courtesans, Maradatta was free from dangers and calamities, and considered himself akin to the gods.
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One day a Tantric teacher named Virabhairava told him that he would obtain a miraculous sword with which he could conquer the realm of the Vidyadharas, if only creatures of all kinds were sacrificed in the temple of the goddess Candamari in his capital, and if at the same time he killed with his own hands a couple of human beings possessing all auspicious physical characteristics. Hearing this, Maradatta summoned the entire population to the temple of the dread goddess under the pretext of celebrating the Mahānavami festival, although it was not the proper season for it, and himself repaired to the shrine and ordered the guards to fetch the required couple of human beings for the purpose of sacrifice.
The temple of Candamari was a horrid place, frequented by the terrible female spirits known as the Mahayoginis, and a crowd of fanatical votaries, engaged in outrageous forms of self-torture. Certain devotees were burning Guggula incense on their heads; some, extremely ferocious, were burning their arteries, like lights; while others, exceedingly bold, were trying to please Śiva by drinking their own blood. In one corner, Kāpālikas were selling for a price pieces of flesh cut off from their own bodies, and at another place certain fanatics were worshipping the Mothers by swinging from their intestines, extracted with their own hands. Elsewhere certain grim men were offering their own flesh as an oblation in the sacred fire. Such was the temple of Caṇḍamārī, terrifying to Death himself. Meanwhile, the Jaina sage Sudatta, famous for his austerities, and unaffected by the rigours of the winter and the summer and the monsoon, was approaching Rajapura with a large number of disciples. Avoiding the city in view of the impending slaughter, and turning to the east, he saw a beautiful pleasure garden where young men were disporting themselves with beautiful damsels, adorned with floral ornaments. But he said to himself thus:
ब्रह्मस्तम्बनितम्बिनी रतिकथाप्रारम्भचन्द्रोदयाः, कामं कामरसावतारविषय व्यापारपुष्पाकराः । प्रायः प्राप्तसमाधिशुद्धमनसोऽप्येते प्रदेशाः क्षणात् स्वान्तध्वान्तकृतो भवन्ति तदिह स्थातुं न युक्तं यतेः ॥ 1. 71.
1 See Chap. XIII.