Paumacariya 58

English (machine translation) 58

Language: English

58.1

Bowing his head, the king of Magadha asks the lord of Gaṇadharas: / "Hasta and Prahasta were great warriors, never conquered before by anyone.

58.2

How were they, though exceedingly strong, slain in battle by Nala and Nīla, O Blessed One? / Relate it in full; in this matter I have supreme curiosity."

58.3

Then Indrabhūti says: "O Śreṇika! Listen with a single mind / to their previous connection; I shall tell everything just as it happened.

58.4

In the city of Kuśasthala, there were two householder Brahmins from one womb, / devoted to the work of farming, named Indhana and Pallava.

58.5

They did not revile ascetics, were eager to give alms, modest, / and naturally desired association with the teaching of the Jina.

58.6

A second pair of brothers, however, was extremely cruel, of bad mind, / deluded in worldly Śrutis, and intent on reviling ascetics.

58.7

Then, a fierce dispute having arisen between them over a king's donation, / both Indhana and Pallava were murdered by those wicked ones.

58.8

By the fruit of giving to the best of ascetics, having enjoyed pleasures in Harivarṣa, / both were born as gods in celestial vimānas at the expiration of their lifespans.

58.9

Those, on the other hand, who were devoted to wickedness died and were both born / as rabbits in the great forest of Kāliñjara, dreadful and filled with manifold misery.

58.10

For men in this world who have intense passions, who are intent on reviling ascetics, / and who follow the control of the senses, birth in an evil state of existence is a certainty.

58.11

Then, having met their end, after wandering in various births as animals, / they were born in a human birth and became bark-clad ascetics.

58.12

With great matted locks and large bodies, having practiced foolish penance, they died, / and were born in the city of Ariñjaya in the womb of Queen Āśinī,

58.13

as sons of Vahnikumāra, Hasta and Prahasta, divine in appearance, / warriors famous throughout the three worlds, servants of the son of Ratnaśravas.

58.14

Falling from the first heaven, the other two were then born as humans; / devoted to the householder's dharma, having met their death, they were born as gods.

58.15

At the time of the expiration of their merit, falling, those [former] Indhana and Pallava / were born in the city of Kiṣkindhī as Nala and Nīla, sons of Ṛkṣarajas.

58.16

Because Indhana and Pallava were formerly killed by those of sinful disposition, / Hasta and Prahasta were in turn slain in battle by Nala and Nīla.

58.17

He who was slain by someone previously is in turn slain by him—there is no doubt; / therefore, one should not kill another, lest he become an enemy.

58.18

He who gives happiness to living beings, O Śreṇika, truly enjoys bliss; / he who causes pain receives pain; of this there is no doubt.

58.19

Having thus heard this account of Nala and Nīla and the slaying of Hasta and Prahasta, / abandon the path of enmity full of much suffering, and grasp this pure Jina-dharma."

58.20

Thus the fifty-eighth parvan in the Paümacariya, named 'Recital of the Previous Births of Nala, Nīla, Hasta, and Prahasta', is completed.

Linked texts (1)

Paümacariya — Vimalasūri, Māhārāṣṭrī Prakrit