A History of Indian Literature v2.c20.s3.73

v2.c20.s3.73

Whereas the heroes of the Rāmāyaṇa move in an entirely Brahmanical atmosphere, in the Paüma-Cariya the religion of the Jina is everywhere very much to the fore. The kings are generally pious laymen, who retire from the world in their old age, and become Jaina monks. As in all narrative poems of the Jainas, the preliminary stories, *i. e.*, the stories of the previous existences of the heroes, are told with a great wealth of detail. Daśaratha takes up the reins of government, because his elder brother Anantaratha has become a monk (XXII, 100-105). A festival in the Jaina temple is described (XXIX, 1-18) at which King Daśaratha with his sons performs the ablution of the Jina images, and after an eight days' fast worships the Jinas. After the ablution he sends the water to his wives, and the young women, the daughters-in-law, pour it over the heads of their mothers-in-law. Now the principal wife did not receive the water which was intended for her, and feels herself slighted, so that she wishes to hang herself. The king, however, surprises her. While she is explaining things to him, the chamberlain comes with the water, and pours it over her head, whereupon she calms down. But the king reproaches the chamberlain with his thoughtlessness, whereupon the latter excuses himself on the ground of old age :