Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

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

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YAŠASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
8) The spring festivities are followed by the Mahānavami in the course of which the goddess Aparājitā is worshipped. Then comes the Festival of Light (dipotsava). After this, Yasodhara practises archery, while a bard recites verses in praise of his skill in shooting with bow and arrows. t) Moonrise and the gaiety of love.
Book IV Yasodhara now turns to his domestic affairs, and relates an episode of his married life, which is the pivotal point of the story.
One evening Yasodhara visited his consort Amrtamati to pass the night with her in her apartments on tbe top floor of a seven-storied palace. About midnight the king, who was not quite asleep, noticed that the queen slipped away from his bed, and, furtively looking at him, discarded her ornaments, and, putting on the clothes of her maid, quickly went out of the chamber. The king's suspicion was aroused, and he at once followed her close on her heels, and saw her entering the hut of an elephant-driver named Aştavanka, an ugly cripple, who was fast asleep in a miserable bed, resting his head on a pile of ropes. Amộtamati sat down near him, and took hold of his bands, but he was furious at her delay in coming to him, and, dragging her by the hair with the left hand, gave her blows with the other. The queen was profuse in her apologies and confession of love, and swore by the goddess Kātyāyani that she was thinking only of him even when in the company of Yasodhara. The latter was observing the scene unseen, and was about to draw his sword to strike the guilty pair, but restrained himself, thinking of the resulting scandal and the grief the young prince Yaśomati would feel at the death of his mother. Yasodhara then returned to the palace; and Amộtamati, too, stealthily came and quietly lay down beside him as if nothing had happened.
Yasodhara could hardly sleep, and was filled with anguish and disgust, and felt abhorrence not only for Amrtamati but for women in general, He was puzzled at the queen's strange infatuation with a low-born elephantdriver, but remembered that the cripple was an expert singer, reputed to be able to make even withered trees put forth new shoots with the melody of his voice, and that songs had a ravishing effect upon women who were apt to be bewitched by a singer, however wretched or ugly he might be.
Yaśodhara continued to reflect on the conduct of Amrtamati, and the more he brooded over it, the greater became his disgust for women and worldly pleasures; and he made up his mind to renounce the world, leaving the throne to his son Yasomati. Next morning he appeared in court, and was there joined by his mother Candramati. A bard recited