The Story of Surasundarī 14

English (machine translation) 14

Language: English

14.1

And while Dhanadeva was narrating this account to the king,
meanwhile Surasundarī, tormented by deep grief [cried]:

14.2

‘Alas! This heart of mine, a mine of sorrows and forged from diamond,
even having heard what should not be heard, does not burst into a hundred pieces!

14.3

What is the use of preserving these vital breaths, dwellings of sorrow,
now that disaster has struck my beloved in the wreck of his ship?

14.4

Even at the very first sight, an intensity of love was shown by you, my lord!
By whom, when I was besieged by Śatruñjaya, my father was freed.

14.5

Deprived of your excellent magic spells by the very same god who abducted me,
how will you fare, my lord, in the ocean amidst the shipwreck?

14.6

Alas! How shall I ever look upon your face, spotless like the moon's rays, my lord,
when such a thing has been ordained by fate for me of ill fortune?

14.7

True is this popular saying: ‘Women are fickle in love,’
since, having heard such news, I, wretched woman, still live on!’

14.8

Thinking thus, having lost consciousness from the surge of grief,
she fell in a faint upon the lap of the queen seated beside her.

14.9

Queen Kamalāvatī too, tormented by grief over the presumed loss of her son,
her eyes clouded with tears, began to lament in this manner:

14.10

‘Alas, my little son! Born just then in the forest, you were carried away from me;
even now, unseen by me, where have you gone without my knowledge?

14.11

Blessed is that woman by whom, O son, your face has been beheld!
Alas! Alas! Unfortunate am I, by whom you were not even seen after being born!

14.12

Could what was prophesied back then by the sage-chief indeed be false:
that having reached youth, he would surely meet [us] in Hatthiṇāpura?’

14.13

King Amaraketu as well, the luster of his face drained as he rested his head upon his palm,
his limbs trembling with sorrow for his son, began to shed tears.

14.14

Meanwhile, Dhanadeva, having become curious upon seeing Surasundarī faint,
questioned the court lady Haṁsikā:

14.15

‘Who is this extraordinary maiden whose eyes are closed in a swoon?’
And she recounted everything to him, beginning with her falling into the pleasure garden.

14.16

Remembering the words of Sumati, Dhanadeva then spoke thus: / "Why are you despondent, O King? Or why do you lament, O Queen?

14.17

Have you forgotten that which was foretold by the astrologer Sumati? / 'When, indeed, a maiden shall fall into the Kusumākara garden,

14.18

then quickly shall come about your reunion with your own son.' / Therefore, do not be anxious now; he shall meet [you], there is no doubt.

14.19

Since Sumati tells the truth, and his proof has been obtained many times, / do not fall into despair, even though a shipwreck has occurred."

14.20

And while Dhanadeva was thus consoling [them] with skillful words, / in the meantime the sound of a kettledrum suddenly burst forth.

14.21

Gods were seen descending from the sky outside the city; / the cry of "Victory! Victory!" was heard, mingled with the songs of celestial damsels.

14.22

While the people standing in the assembly were saying, "What is this? What is this?", / Samantabhadra arrived, his hands held together in joy.

14.23

And, making a bow, he said: "In the northeastern quarter of the city, / in the Kusumākara garden, on ground fit for ascetics,

14.24

surrounded by a troop of monks, knowing the whole extent of the meaning of all treatises, / like a lion in checking the elephants of opposing disputants,

14.25

devoted to various austerities, intent on pure conduct and self-restraint, / solely intent on doing good to others, is the sūri named Supratiṣṭha.

14.26

He has arrived this very day; and for him, whose destructive karmas are burnt to ashes, / there has now arisen unhindered omniscience.

14.27

To celebrate the feast of omniscience, the gods have gathered here, O King!" / Hearing that, the king set forth with joy to pay homage.

14.28

"O Queen, you too be ready, accompanied by Surasundarī; / having bowed to the Blessed One, ask about the news of your son."

14.29

Bathed and anointed, accompanied by a great troop of soldiers, / mounted on an excellent lordly elephant, the king reached the Kusumākara garden.

14.30

Accompanied by all his retinue, he made three circumambulations around the best of monks, / bowed to his two feet, and sat down in a suitable place.

14.31

Then, the feast of omniscience having been performed, amid the assembly of gods, men, and asuras, / the sūri began to speak in a deep voice:

14.32

"Among the hellish, animal, human, and divine destinies, by beings tormented with suffering, / human birth in this saṃsāra is attained only with great difficulty.

14.33

Even having attained that rare state, many living beings, deluded by false belief and the rest, / greedy for the bait of sensory objects, do not perform what is beneficial for the other world.

14.34

Bereft of hearing the words of the Jina, they do not at all know what should and should not be done; / they discern not what is edible and inedible, or what is drinkable and undrinkable.

14.35

Devoid of boundaries, lustful, they do not consider the distinction between proper and improper women. / When prevented by righteous and benevolent people, they say thus:

14.36

'Fools, you have been deceived by rogues! There is no soul whatsoever / that goes to the other world, an experiencer of pleasure and pain, or formless.

14.37

In its absence, to whom here could sin caused by violence and so forth belong? / Therefore, [existence] is merely an aggregation of the five elements, nothing else in the world.'

14.38

With dispositions of such kind, cruel-hearted, they commit the slaughter of living beings; / they speak falsehood, take what is not given, and go to another's wife.

14.39

Devoted to abundant possessions, their minds deluded by passion and hatred, / eating meat and food at night, they are addicted to drinking honey and liquor.

14.40

Tormented by anger, pride, deceit, and greed, having afflicted dispositions, / unchaste and holding wrong views, they accumulate defiled karma.

14.41

Falling under its sway, at the end of their lives they tumble into dreadful hells / that are perpetually shrouded in thick darkness and filled with intense cold and heat.

14.42

And born there, wailing, they are cleaved hundreds of times / by the paramādhārmika gods with sharp saws and blazing axes.

14.43

Having been raised up into the midst of the dense branches of the silk-cotton tree, bristling with heavy and sharp thorns, / they are repeatedly dragged down with ropes.

14.44

In cauldrons boiling with a bubbling sound, they are cooked by them with merciless minds; / while crying out, 'Thirsty!', they are made to drink boiling copper.

14.45

Flesh cut from their own bodies, made to resemble fire, / is thrust into the mouths of the hungry, helpless hell-beings.

14.46

Making them cross the river Vaitaraṇī, filled with pus, fat, and blood, / they are plunged [into it] while howling and crying out, 'Alas! Alas! Mother!'

14.47

Seeking shade, having arrived in the sword-leaved forest, / while lamenting, they are sliced by the sharp leaves taking the form of swords, javelins, and spears.

14.48

Tormented there, crying out, 'Protect us, we have come for refuge!', / reminded of their previous births, they are struck even more severely by them.

14.49

What more? For even the twinkling of an eye there is no happiness, but only unending torment / for the hell-beings who are boiled day and night in hell.

14.50

Having thus experienced dreadful sufferings for an immense time, / when somehow or other emerging, they are born into animal wombs.

14.51

There also, through hunger, thirst, heat, cold, slaughter, binding, and the pain of diseases, / through loading of burdens, piercing of nostrils, subduing, goads, and driving-sticks, etc.,

14.52

they repeatedly experience manifold forms of suffering / such as mutual devouring and beating, again and again in diverse wombs.

14.53

If, from there, souls somehow obtain the hard-to-attain human state, / there too arises diverse bodily and mental suffering.

14.54

Afflicted by the heavy stroke of the mallet of poverty, in their desire to obtain a morsel of bad food, / they carry out the commands even of the base.

14.55

Taking no account of night or day, miserable, they travel to very distant and rugged regions, / enter treacherous chasms, and cross the ocean.

14.56

In their longing to gain wealth, seized by the planetary demon of greed, they count not suffering, / and enter terrible battles bristling with gleaming spears.

14.57

The suffering that arises from separation from beloved persons, and from the attainment of what is disliked, / and likewise through various misfortunes—who, indeed, is able to describe it?

14.58

Afflicted by various diseases and pains, they find no tranquility; / then they are seized by old age, and thereafter they die in utter disgust.

14.59

Even if some obtain godhood, suffering arises even there / for those whose minds are burned with envy, sorrow, fear, grief, and greed.

14.60

Seeing the greater splendor of others, ordered about like servants by a master, / even gods become deeply afflicted at the time of their fall [from heaven].

14.61

As they wander in this worldly existence, filled with eighty-four hundred thousand wombs, / there is not a single place into which they have not entered an infinite number of times.

14.62

Everywhere they are stricken with pain who are devoid of the Dharma of the Lord of Jinas; / therefore, O beloved of the gods, practice the Dharma taught by the Jina!

It is declared to be of two kinds: the Dharma of the ascetic and the Dharma of the householder; / and the abode of the multitude of virtues, right faith, is to be known as the [foundation] of both kinds."

14.64

Faith in the meaning of the principles, whose nature is a state of auspiciousness, is [right belief]; / but the principles are to be known as beginning with the soul.

14.65

Soul, non-soul, merit, demerit, inflow, restraint, dissociation, / bond, and liberation: these are the nine principles.

14.66

Subtle, gross, two-sensed, three-sensed, four-sensed, / sentient, and non-sentient, both developed and undeveloped—indeed, [souls are of] fourteen [types].

14.67

The medium of motion, the medium of rest, and space, each of three kinds, and likewise time, / aggregates, parts, space-points, and primary atoms—non-soul is of fourteen kinds.

14.68

Pleasure-bearing, high family, thirty-seven [sub-types of] physique[-making karma], / and three life[-karmas]: thus the auspicious karma-types are forty-two.

14.69

Ten of knowledge-[obscuring] and obstructive, nine of perception-[obscuring], twenty-six types of deluding, / thirty-four of physique, and one each of the [remaining] three are inauspicious [karma-types].

14.70

Senses, passions, non-vows, activities—five, four, five, and twenty-five— / and activities are three; the inflow is said to be forty-two.

14.71

Carefulnesses, guards, Dharma, reflections, endurance of hardships, and conduct: / there are fifty-seven varieties, beginning with the five and the three varieties, in restraint.

14.72

Austerity has twelve kinds beginning with fasting; through it dissociation is proclaimed; / or austerity is of many kinds, divided into series of gold and the like.

14.73

Bond is fourfold through the divisions of nature, duration, intensity, and space-points; / but liberation is proclaimed to be eternal, the departure of the eightfold karma.

14.74

With faith in these, the Arhat is the deity, the virtuous sādhus are the gurus; / such right conviction is to be known as right belief.

14.75

The abandonment of censurable activity through activities of mind, speech, and body— / this is the Dharma of ascetics, difficult to practice for those of feeble strength.

14.76

Compassion is to be extended by him toward the six classes of living beings beginning with earth; / truthful speech, purified of all blemish, is to be spoken.

14.77

Even a mere blade of grass that is ungiven must not be taken with an impure mind; / and the vow of celibacy endowed with the nine protections must always be maintained.

14.78

Except for religious requisites, not even slight possession should be kept; / nor indeed should the four kinds of food ever be consumed at night.

14.79

The five carefulnesses and the three guards must constantly be observed; / likewise, the twenty-two hardships that arise must be thoroughly conquered.

14.80

Respectful service to the sūri and other elders must be performed according to one's power; / and afflictions caused by humans, animals, or gods must be endured.

14.81

Attachment and aversion toward sense-objects such as sounds must never be entertained; / food purified of the forty-two defects must be consumed only when there is a reason.

14.82

For pain, for respectful service, for the sake of movement, and for the sake of self-control, / likewise for the maintenance of life, and sixth, for the contemplation of Dharma.

14.83

Scriptural study is to be performed; all improper talk must be avoided; / one must always exert oneself in internal and external austerity.

14.84

Abandoning sorrowful and wrathful meditation, one should meditate on righteous and pure meditation; / and the host of noble reflections beginning with impermanence must be contemplated.

14.85

Modesty must be practiced; sinful self-will should not be indulged; / and the ten-fold monastic Dharma must be observed at all times.

14.86

Forbearance, humility, uprightness, freedom from greed, austerity and self-restraint are to be understood, / truth, purity, non-possession, and celibacy: [this is] the Dharma of an ascetic.

14.87

One should dwell among monks; association with the unvirtuous is not to be made; / carelessness, though of five kinds, must be diligently avoided.

14.88

Intoxicants, sense-objects, passions, sleep, and improper talk is declared the fifth: / this fivefold carelessness casts a soul into saṃsāra.

14.89

What more? The burden of the eighteen thousand components of moral virtue, / causing distress to a mind of weak resolve, must be carried as long as life lasts.

14.90

Practiced, O lord of men, the Dharma of an ascetic leads swiftly to liberation; / but after a long time, the layperson's Dharma also leads to all that.

14.91

There are five minor vows, and three merit-vows, / and four vows of training: the layperson's Dharma is of twelve kinds.

14.92

When the two-fold Dharma had thus been explained in detail, / recognizing the occasion, the king questioned the sūri thus:

14.93

"By whom was the son of Kamalāvatī, as soon as he was born, / carried off in the forest, or remembering what previously committed enmity?

14.94

Where has he grown up, O venerable one? When will he meet with us? / Explain this in detail, having shown us your grace!"

14.95

Knowing that when told, it would benefit a multitude of people, / the omniscient one said: "We shall tell it; listen, O king!

14.96

In the continent of Dhātakīkhaṇḍa, in the eastern half, in the realm of Bharata, / there is an ancient city named Avarakaṅkā.

14.97

In it, a merchant named Ambaḍa had a wife named Acchuttā; / to her, in due course, three sons of distinguished form were born,

14.98

named Maṇḍana, Malhaṇa, and Candana; and they had three wives, / named Lakṣmī, Sarasvatī, and Sampadā, endowed with supreme beauty.

14.99

By nature gentle in their passions, endowed with supreme mutual affection, / fond of giving, and contented, those merchants lived happily.

14.100

Then once upon a time, Lakṣmī was seen by a rake named Ninna; / he was overcome by her beauty and charm.

14.101

He wooed her repeatedly, but she did not desire him even in thought. / Then on another day, Lakṣmī went to a lake for water.

14.102

Mounted on a horse, Ninna also came behind her; / seized by force in the desolate spot, she was placed upon the horse's back.

14.103

Lamenting, she was carried into the forest by the horse running swiftly; / in a battle with the Bhīlas, Ninna was killed in the forest.

14.104

Her ornaments taken, Lakṣmī was left there in the forest by the Bhīlas; / wandering there, having lost her bearings, she was eaten by a hungry lion.

14.105

Then Sarasvatī, the wife of Malhaṇa, being propositioned / by the merchant Mohila, related everything as it happened to her husband.

14.106

When Malhaṇa had gone and reported that event to the king, / Mohila was stripped of his wealth and banished by the king.

14.107

Having lived through many hundreds of thousands of pūrvas of their allotted lifespan, / all three died, and having bound a human lifespan, from there,

14.108

here in Jambūdvīpa, there is a city named Mekhalāvatī, / sprawling in the Āryan country in the noble realm of Airāvata.

14.109

There Bhīmaratha was king, and Kusumāvalī was his queen; / first Maṇḍana was conceived as her son.

14.110

And born at an auspicious time, large-eyed, resembling a divine youth, / he was given the name Kanakaratha at an appropriate time.

14.111

Gradually attaining youth, he took the hands of noble royal maidens / of pure lineage, headed by Rājaśrī.

14.112

Established in the rank of crown prince, he enjoyed excellent human pleasures / situated in the inner apartments, like a god in heaven.

14.113

In that city there were two wealthy caravan leaders, brothers of the same womb, / well known as Sāgaradatta and Samudradatta.

14.114

Then that Ninnayavaṇṭha was killed there in the forest by Bhīlas. / After wandering through several difficult births among animal wombs,

14.115

transmigrating, he was born as a son to the merchant-caravan leader Sāgaradatta / and his wife Dhanyā, named Subandhu.

14.116

The soul of Malhaṇa too, having died at the end of his lifespan, / was born to Sudarśanā, wife of Samudradatta,

14.117

as a son named Dhanapati, endowed with great beauty and skilled in the arts. / And there is a city named Vijayā right there in Airāvata.

14.118

In that city was an affluent caravan leader named Dhanabhūti; / his wife was named Sundarī, and his son was named Sudharman.

14.119

Then the merchant Candana also died and was born as the uterine younger brother / of that Sudharman, named Dhanavāhana.

14.120

Right there in Airāvata, in the city of Supratiṣṭhapura, lived Haridatta, / a wealthy man; and his wife was Vinayavatī, endowed with modesty.

14.121

Their son was Vasudatta. Now, that Lakṣmī at that time in the forest, / having been killed by a lion and wandered in animal wombs,

14.122

was born as the daughter of Vinayavatī, named Sulocanā, / younger sister to Vasudatta, exceedingly beautiful like the wife of a god.

14.123

Candana’s wife too, having died, / was thereupon born as Sulocanā's younger sister, Anaṅgavatī.

14.124

Meanwhile, Malhaṇa’s wife Sarasvatī, having died, / was born as the youngest of them both, named Vasumatī.

14.125

In this way, through the power of destiny, the three of them were born in one place / as sisters, full of mutual affection.

14.126

Having attained youth, they were married by their parents / to suitable bridegrooms of equal caste and endowed with beauty.

14.127

Moreover, the eldest, Sulocanā, was married to the soul of Ninnavaṇṭha, / the merchant named Subandhu, the son of Sāgaradatta.

14.128

The second, Anaṅgavatī, was married in the city of Vijayā / to Dhanabhūti's son named Dhanavāhana, her former beloved.

14.129

The third, named Vasumatī, was married to the soul of Malhaṇa, her former beloved, / Dhanapati, the son of Samudradatta.

14.130

Except for the eldest, Sulocanā, through the power of destiny, / they were joined with their beloveds of previous births, filled with affection.

14.131

Because of familiarity from the previous birth, Sulocanā was dear to Subandhu; / yet he was not so to her. In this way the days passed.

14.132

Now, one day Kanakaratha, in order to ride his horse, / set out along the royal highway accompanied by a troop of soldiers.

14.133

Then the city-women, climbing up onto the roofs of their respective mansions, / set out in this manner to gaze at the prince as he departed.

14.134

One [woman], seeing the prince full of charm and equal in form to the God of Love, / thought: 'Blessed is she whose beloved is he!'

14.135

Another, her mind fixed on looking at the prince, her activities abandoned, / having motionless eyes, assumed the demeanor of a celestial maiden.

14.136

Yet another, holding in her hand a necklace of sparkling pearls, appeared / like a yoginī absorbed in meditation, holding a rosary of crystal.

14.137

One woman, having rushed forth in the excitement of curiosity, then withdrawing in apprehension of her elders, / shone as if mounted on a swing at the prince's departure.

14.138

One with playfully fluttering eyes, heaving sighs as she gazed at the prince, / seemed to her clever female companions as if struck in her limbs by the arrows of Love.

14.139

One kisses her child, another clings to the neck of her female friend; / another sings, and one calls out loudly.

14.140

Wherever the prince glanced, playfully turning his neck, / right there the festival of beauty swelled among the women of the city.

14.141

And thus being watched with passionate eyes by the city-women, / he gradually arrived at the vicinity of Sāgaradatta's house.

14.142

He was seen by Sulocanā, who was standing at a window; and by him too / was seen this woman, radiant with wide eyes glossed with collyrium.

14.143

From the familiarity of a previous birth, through gazing at each other, / an exceedingly intense passion arose in both of them in just an instant.

14.144

Then, hastening, his body mounted on the horse, the prince rode on / in body, but not in mind—his heart stolen by Sulocanā's beauty.

14.145

He asked his childhood friend Sumati: 'O friend, whose is this / young woman standing at the window, with a mirror in her busy hand?'

14.146

'O prince, this is named Sulocanā, the wife of the merchant Subandhu, / son of Sāgaradatta.' When this was spoken in turn by Sumati,

14.147

having exercised his horse, Kanakaratha returned to his own palace; / his limbs agitated by the arrows of Love, he pondered a means to obtain her:

14.148

'What use to me is splendour, what use is a harem or kingship, / if I do not attain the role of a bee upon the lotus of her face?

14.149

Even if such a deed is opposed by the world for those born of good family, / nevertheless, separated from her, I am not able even to sustain life.

14.150

Having learned through sending a messenger the feeling in her heart, / if she too desires it, I shall place her in my own harem.'

14.151

Having reflected thus, a clever female ascetic was summoned by him: / 'Do it in such a way, revered lady, that she becomes my lover!'

14.152

She went into solitude and spoke to her with such cleverness / that, having revealed her true feelings, [Sulocanā] quickly confessed what was in her heart:

14.153

'You appear distressed, daughter! Why? With what do you have concern? / I will bring it, even if exceedingly difficult to attain, by the power of my spells.'

14.154

She said: 'Revered lady, my heart longs for an unattainable person, / like a penniless, wretched man longing for the meal of an emperor.

14.155

Just as some shameless female dog desires union with a lion, / just so, revered lady, do I desire union with the prince.'

14.156

She said: 'Even this, my daughter, I will bring about by the power of spells! / How small a matter is this, wherever my spell shines forth?

14.157

Do not despair, daughter! I will apply a spell in such a way / that this very day your union with the prince will occur.'

14.158

'Revered lady, it must be done in such a way that no humiliation comes to me in the world.' / Having spoken thus, she gave her own pearl necklace.

14.159

Thereupon the female ascetic, having gone, reported everything to the prince. / He too, with a delighted mind, had her brought by his own men.

14.160

Sulocanā was placed in his harem by him, his mind infatuated with passion, / disregarding popular reproach and transgressing his own propriety.

14.161

And the citizens, having perceived the feud, reported it to the king; / he too instructed [the prince] in many ways with sweet words.

14.162

Yet he did not wish to release her. Then, realizing his stubbornness, / the king spoke to the citizens: 'We are powerless against the prince.'

14.163

He does not let go by conciliation, and punishment cannot be applied to the prince; / therefore, forgive this one offense of our prince.”

14.164

Hearing these words of the king, the citizens, with crestfallen faces, / downcast and joyless, all returned just as they had come.

14.165

Even Kanakaratha, his mind constantly attached to the pleasure of love with her, / gradually became indifferent to enjoying the rest of the inner apartments.

14.166

He did not think of state policy, did not go outside, did not give audience; / together with Sulocanā, he remained in diverse amusements.

14.167

In this way, much time passed for that king's son, / whose mind was intent upon the pleasant touch of her fresh youth.

14.168

Now, at another time, queen Rāyasirī, who was previously his beloved, / feeling humiliated and seized by anger,

14.169

threw a madness-inducing powder, provided by an attendant mendicant woman, / onto the heads of the two while they slept in seclusion.

14.170

Under its influence, both immediately became insane; / they sang, laughed, and babbled nonsensically in many ways.

14.171

Then Bhīmaratha summoned many sorcerers; / thinking, “This is a disturbance by evil spirits,” they too performed rituals.

14.172

Moreover, having made a bodily protection, some, firmly grasping them during incantations, / struck them with heavy blows of their palms and with lashes of the whip.

14.173

Some, having drawn [diagrams] on the floor and placing [the two] attentively within, / recited mantras and repeatedly struck them with enchanted white mustard seeds.

14.174

Others, mixing rare calf dung with bdellium and the like / and throwing it into a brazier, administered fumigation.

14.175

Physicians, suspecting a disorder of wind, undertook various treatments, / but no benefit arose for them.

14.176

Time passed for them, appearing like madfolk, their minds lost. / Then once, at night, when the guards had fallen asleep,

14.177

breaking their chains, they secretly escaped from the city; / both wandered about, tormented by the great suffering of cold, heat, and wind.

14.178

Thus, best of kings, having been happy in saṃsāra, one becomes miserable; / even a king roams for alms, and sleeps on the bare earth without shelter.

14.179

Having been adorned with excellent food, ointments, and ornaments, / they wandered for alms from house to house, tormented by suffering.

14.180

Bedusted with dirt, their antics mocked by crowds of boys, / dressed in tattered rags of old cloth, they wandered most miserably.

14.181

A spectacle for a crowd of boys, intensely lamented by wise men: / behold, best of kings, what that couple became through the fault of karma!

14.182

And so, such was their case. Meanwhile, in the city named Vijaya, / Ghanavāhana, passionate for Anaṅgavatī, enjoyed pleasures.

14.183

Awakened by his elder brother, the sūri Suharma, / he, together with Anaṅgavatī, renounced the world in the presence of the sūri.

14.184

Meanwhile, Dhanapati, joined in love with Vasumatī, / enjoyed human pleasures of five kinds.

14.185

Just as the merchant Mohila had been exiled from his country by the king, / having performed such penance, which had happiness as its fruit, [he died].

14.186

He was reborn on Mount Vaitāḍhya, in Vaijayantapura on the northern slope, / as the son of Cittaṅgada and Pṛthvī, named Sumaṅgala.

14.187

Having mastered many kinds of magical sciences, roaming the vault of the sky, / he once playfully arrived in the city of Meghalāvatī.

14.188

Ascending the palace roof, he saw Vasumatī bathing; / due to familiarity from a previous birth, he became enamored of her beauty.

14.189

Taking the form of Dhanapati, he enjoyed the innocent Vasumatī; / intent on lovemaking with her, he remained there in the guise of Dhanapati.

14.190

The merchant Dhanapati, however, due to the fault of karma acquired in a past birth, / was abducted by him and abandoned right here in Vinītā in Bharata.

14.191

There, at the feet of the omniscient Dandavīrya, born of the lineage of the Jina Ṛṣabha, / he became disgusted with worldly life and renounced the world.

14.192

Practicing fierce penance for thirty hundred-thousand pūrvas, / he was reborn in the Īśāna heaven as a deva named Candrārjuna.

14.193

By that enraged deva, Sumaṅgala, who was intent on another's wife, had his excellent magic lore severed, / and was cast beyond Mount Mānuṣottara.

14.194

Then Vasumatī was awakened by the deva, and having felt intense spiritual urgency, / she became an āryikā at the feet of the sūri Suharma and the pavattinī.

14.195

In this way, Anaṅgavatī, joined there with the āryikā Vasumatī, / performed fierce penance at the feet of Candrayaśā, the head of the nuns.

14.196

Then once, when they had gone out to the privy-ground, / that insane couple was seen by them, surrounded by many children,

14.197

singing loudly in many ways, dancing, their bodies soiled with dust. / Seeing them, Anaṅgavatī, filled with sorrow, said:

14.198

“Noble lady Vasumatī! This woman resembles my sister Sulocanā, / wearing rags of old cloth, standing beside a man possessed by a spirit!”

14.199

Vasumatī, gazing attentively for a long time, said with sorrow: / “Surely, this is that Kanakaratha, and this is Sulocanā!”

14.200

Then both went up and addressed the couple sweetly, / [who only] sang out, laughed, danced, and spoke much nonsense.

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Linked texts (1)

Surasuṃdarīcariya — Dhaneśvara, Māhārāṣṭrī Prakrit