________________
412
YASASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
with soft and kind words. The god then threw off his disguise, and took his departure after praising and honouring the king with divine presents.
IV) Unswerving allegiance to the tenets of the Jaina faith and the lack thereof are illustrated in the stories of Revati and Bhavasena respectively. A Vidyadhara prince, indifferent to worldly happiness, abdicated in favour of his son, and desiring to visit the Jaina temple at Mathura, took leave of his guru Munigupta at Madura, the Mathura of the south', and departed for the north with a congratulatory message from Munigupta to Revati, the consort of Varuna, king of Mathura. Arriving at the city by air, the Vidyadhara decided to test the religious conviction of Bhavyasena, a learned Jaina teacher, and of the faithful Revati. Assuming the form of a young student, he first appeared before Bhavyasena and expressed his desire to study grammar with him. One day while walking with his teacher in the outskirts of the city, the Vidyadhara, by his supernatural powers, covered the ground with young sprouts of corn; and, on Bhavyasena hesitating to walk over them, because in the Jaina scriptures the sprouts of corn were regarded as stationary creatures, the so-called student argued that they had no characteristic of life such as breath, and were merely transformations of earth, very like gems. Bhavyesena believed his words and walked over the sprouts, without questioning the validity of his assertion. Similarly, the Vidyadhara persuaded Bhavyasena to use a clod of earth for cleansing purposes by arguing that it did not contain any living creatures, as maintained by Jaina doctrine. Then he persuaded him to take water without first straining it through a cloth, as required by Jaina practice (in order to eliminate living creatures), his argument being that no such creatures were visible in the transparent water. In this way the Vidyadhara satisfied himself that Bhavyasena lacked inner conviction and tenacity of faith in the religion professed by him; he now realised why the sage Munigupta had neglected to address any message to Bhavyasena.
The Vidyadhara then proceeded with elaborate preparations to test the faith of Revati, well-known for her whole-hearted devotion to the Jains faith. He betook himself to the eastern quarter of the city, and there creat ed a sensation by assuming the form of Brahman, seated on a swan, with all his characteristics and paraphernalia. The Vedic verses uttered by the latter were being eagerly listened to by a multitude of sages such as Matanga, Bhrgu, Bharata, Gautama, Garga, Pingala, Pulaha, Puloman, Pulasti, Parāśara, Marici and Virocana. The Arts incarnate in the form of beautiful maidens were standing by, plying their fly-whisks, and the deep-voiced Narada was acting as doorkeeper. Revati heard of this extraordinary phenomenon,
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
