Part 12: Cārudatta’s adventures resumed

I went home and in course of time attained youth, amusing myself as I liked with friends, making a feast for my parents’ eyes. At my parents’ command I married the daughter, Mitravatī, of my maternal uncle, Sarvārtha, on an auspicious day. Devoted to the arts, I did not become devoted to pleasure with her.^[1] My parents noticed that and I was judged, ‘He is inexperienced.’

Then I was urged by my parents into frivolous society for the sake of social experience and I frequented gardens, et cetera, at will. For twelve years I stayed, amusing myself, in the house of the courtesan, Vasantasenā, daughter of Kaliṅgasenā. There sixteen crores of gold were spent without my realizing it and (then) I was driven out by Kaliṅgasenā because ‘He has no money.’

After learning of my parents’ death, miserable, I took courage and took my wife’s ornaments to engage in business. One day I started out with my maternal uncle and with the ornaments I bought cotton in Uśīravartinagara. As I was going to Tāmraliptī, the cotton was burned in a forest-fire. My uncle abandoned me, saying, ‘He is unlucky.’ Then I went alone horseback toward the west. My horse died and then I went on foot. Worn out by a very long road, terrified by hunger and thirst, I went to Priyaṅgunagara which was full of merchants. There I was seen by Surendradatta,’ a friend of my father. Welcomed like a son with clothes, food, et cetera, I stayed comfortably.

Having borrowed at interest a lac, though he opposed me, I embarked on the ocean in a boat with merchandise bought with the money. I reached Yamunādvīpa and by making trips back and forth to Antadvīpa and other cities, I made eight crores of gold. Then I started by water toward my own country. The boat went to pieces and I reached one plank. By means of it I swam across the ocean for seven days and came to a shore called Udumbarāvatīvela. I finally reached a city on it, named Rājapura, and outside of it I went to a hermitage, Uddāmapādapa.^[2] There I saw a wandering mendicant with the triple staves named Dinakaraprabha, and I told him about my family, et cetera. He, well-disposed, treated me like a son. One day he said to me: ‘You seem to want money. Therefore come, son. We shall go to a mountain and there I shall give you a liquid by which you can have crores of gold as you like.’

With this promise I set out with him joyfully and in the late afternoon reached a large forest with many magicians. Going on the mountain-slope, we came to a large cave closed with many stones worked by machinery, resembling the mouth of Yama. The Tridaṇḍin opened the door by a charm and we entered the large cave named Durgapātāla. After wandering over much ground, we reached a well, the site of the liquid, four cubits wide, terrifying as a door to hell. ‘Go inside the well and take the liquid with a gourd,’ he told me and I descended into the well by means of a chair with a rope which he held.

At twenty-four feet down, I saw the liquid surrounded by a wall and I was stopped there by a man. I said to him: ‘I am a merchant, Cārudatta. A holy man had me enter for the liquid. Why do you prevent me?’ He replied: ‘I am a merchant. Desiring money, I was hurled by that Tridaṇḍin into the well of liquid like a piece of meat into an enclosure. He, wicked, went away. The lower part of my body is eaten away by the liquid. Do not enter here. I will hand you the liquid in the gourd.’ Then I handed him the gourd and he filled it with the liquid and tied it beneath the chair and I shook the rope.

The holy man pulled the rope and, when I had come near the top (of the well), asked me for the vessel of liquid and did not lift me up and put me down (outside the well). As I had found out that he was greedy and threatening, I threw the liquid into the well; and he threw me down with the chair and I fell on the wall. The merchant, a brother for no reason, said to me:

‘Do not despair. You have not fallen into the liquid. You are comfortably placed on the wall. When the iguana comes here, hang on to its tail. You must go to the door. Watch for its coming.’ I remained for some time, comforted by his words, repeating the namaskāra again and again. The man died.

One day I heard a terrifying noise, but, trembling, I remembered what he said and knew that an iguana was certainly coming. It came io drink the liquid and when it, very powerful, had turned around, I held to its tail with both hands. Clinging to its tail I left the well, like a cowherd getting out of a river by holding to a cow’s tail. Outside, I turned loose the tail. I fell to the ground in a faint and, when I became conscious, I wandered on and reached a forest and had to climb up on a rock because of a buffalo. As the buffalo was striking the rock with a long horn, he was seized quickly by a python like an arm of Kināśa (Yama). While they were busy fighting, I climbed down and fled. Speedily I came to a village on the edge of a forest. There I was seen by Rudradatta, a friend of my uncle, and, cared for by him, I became rejuvenated, as it were.

Then I took a small amount of mercandise worth a lac and started quickly for Svarṇabhūmi with him. After crossing a river, named Iṣuvegavatī, on the road, we came to a mountain and then in turn to a cane-plantation. We reached the country of the Ṭaṅkaṇas and got two goats. Mounted on them, then we went by a goat-path. Then Rudra said: ‘From now on this is no country for pedestrians. We shall kill the goats and make skins with the hair inside and the flesh outside. We shall put them on here and we shall go to Svarṇamedinī, carried by bhārandas with the idea that we are meat.’

I said: ‘How can we kill these goats, like our brothers, who, poor things, have carried us over difficult ground?’ ‘Since they are not yours, how are you going to stop me?’ Angry, he killed his own goat first quickly. The second goat looked at me with a long, timid glance.

I said to him: ‘I am not able to protect you. What can I do? Nevertheless, may the religion of the Jinas, which bears great fruit, be a refuge for you. It alone is brother, father, mother, and lord to a person in distress.’

Then after accepting the religion, which I described, by nodding its head, he listened attentively to the namaskāra which I recited. He was killed by Rudradatta and became a god.

Carrying knives, we entered their skins. We were lifted up by two bhāraṇḍas; and while they fought on the way from desire for all the meat, I fell into a pool. I cut the skin with the knife and swam out. Going on, I saw a large mountain in a forest. After I had climbed it, I saw a muni standing there in kāyot-sarga. After I had paid homage to him and he had given ‘Dharmalābha,’ he said to me:

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Carudatta’s adventures start out very similarly to those of Dhammila in the Dhammilakathā. His adventures are narrated in the VH, pp. 133ff., which the Triṣaṣṭi⁰ does not follow exactly.

[2]:

Or perhaps uddāmapādapa is an adjective, ‘with large trees.’