Trishashti Shalaka Purusha Caritra

by Helen M. Johnson | 1931 | 742,503 words

This page describes Beating of Dvaipayana which is the second part of chapter XI of the English translation of the Neminatha-caritra, contained within the “Trishashti Shalaka Purusha Caritra”: a massive Jain narrative relgious text composed by Hemacandra in the 12th century. Neminatha in jainism is the twenty-second Tirthankara (Jina) and one of the 63 illustrious beings or worthy persons.

Part 2: Beating of Dvaipāyana

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And now the wine which the people had thrown in stone pits became sweet from the blossoms of various trees falling in it. At that time in the month Vaiśākha one of Śāmba’s men went there as he was roaming about, saw the wine, and drank it from thirst. Delighted with it, he filled a skin with the wine, went to Śāmba’s house, and gave it (to him) as a present. Seeing the fragrant wine, Hari’s son drank it again and again with delight and said, “Where did you get it?” He told about the wine being there and on the next day Śāmba went with princes hard to control to the cave Kādambarī. When he had seen the wine, named Kādambarī from its connection with the cave Kādambari, Śāmba rejoiced, like a thirsty man at the sight of a river. Śāmba had the wine brought by servants to a grove of blossoming trees and, a drinking-party being formed, drank with friends, brothers, and nephews.

Drinking the wine with remarks: “It has been found after a long time.” “It is old.” “It has been made from good materials,” they did not become satiated. Blind from drinking the wine, the princes, sportive, saw the sage Dvaipāyana engaged in meditation on the mountain in front (of them). Śāmba said to his people: “He will destroy my city and family. Therefore, let him be killed. How can one, who has been killed, kill?” Then they all, angry, beat him again and again with clods, kicks, slaps, and fists. After felling him to the ground almost dead, they went to Dvāravatī and entered their respective houses.

Kṛṣṇa learned about this from spies and, depressed, thought: “Oh! this lack of restraint on the part of these princes will be the death of the family.” Then Kṛṣṇa and Rāma went there to Muni Dvaipāyana and saw him red-eyed from anger like a serpent poisoning with its look. Janārdana began to soothe the excessively terrifying three-staved ascetic, like a mahout calming a rogue elephant.

“Anger, above all, is a great enemy which not only causes pain in this birth, but causes continuous pain to a creature in lacs of births. The crime was committed by my sons, ignorant, blind from drinking wine. So, pardon it, great sage. Anger is not fitting for you.”

Being so addressed by Kṛṣṇa the three-staved ascetic was not appeased and he said: “Enough of this conciliatory talk of yours, Kṛṣṇa. Beaten by your sons, I have made a nidāna—to burn Dvārakā with its people. There is no escape from that, except of you.”

Rāma restrained Kṛṣṇa: “Do not, brother, uselessly appease this miserable ascetic intent upon forbidden things. People with crooked feet, noses, hands, with large lips, stomachs, noses, with defective eyes, and deficient limbs certainly do not become tranquil. This one having spoken, there is no escape from the future event, brother. In any case the speech of the Omniscient can not be false.”

Then burned by grief, Kṛṣṇa went to his own house. Dvaipāyana’s nidāna became known in Dvārikā. On the next day Śārṅgabhṛt had a proclamation made in the city: “Henceforth, people, be especially devoted to dharma.” All the people began (to be) so. The Blessed One, Śrī Nemi, came and stopped on Mt. Raivataka. Kṛṣṇa went there, bowed, and listened to a sermon resembling the sun for putting to flight the deep sleep of the world’s delusion. After hearing the sermon, some princes, Pradyumna, Śāmba, Niṣadha, Ulmuka, Sāraṇa. and others became mendicants. Many women of the Yadus, Rukmiṇī, Jāmbavatī, and others, afraid of existence, became mendicants at the Master’s lotus-feet.

Questioned by Kṛṣṇa, the Blessed One said, “In the twelfth year Dvaipāyana will burn this Dvārikā.” Kṛṣṇa thought: “They—Samudravijaya and the others—are fortunate who took initiation in the beginning. Shame on me, uninitiated, greedy for sovereignty.” Knowing his thought, the Master said: “Kṛṣṇa, the Śārṅgins never take initiation, because they have barriers made by a nidāna. They go below necessarily. You will go to Vālukaprabhā.”^[1]

Hearing that, Kṛṣṇa at once became exceedingly miserable. Again the Omniscient said: “Do not be sad, Janārdana. Rising from it, you will be a mortal; then a Vaimānika. Falling, you will be the son of Jitaśatru, lord of the city Gaṅgādvāra in this Bharata, and the twelfth Arhat, named Amama.^[2] Bala will go to Brahmaloka and, falling, will be a mortal; then a god and, failing, will be a man in this Bharata. In the approaching utsarpiṇī. a Keśava, he will attain emancipation in the congregation of you, a Tīrthakṛt named Amama.”^[3]

After saying this, the Lord of the World went elsewhere in his wandering. After bowing to him Vāsudesa went to the city Dvārikā. Then Kṛṣṇa had a proclamation made again in the same way in the city and all the people became especially devoted to dharma. Dvaipāyana died and was born among the Agnikumāras.^[4] He recalled his former enmity and went to Dvārakā. Asura Dvaipāyana saw all the people there observing fasts of one, two, three, et cetera days, engaged in making pūjā to the gods. Unable to make an attack because of the power of dharma, cruel minded, he watched for weak points continually for eleven years.

When the twelfth year came, the people thought: “We will enjoy ourselves, since Dvaipāyana, crushed by this penance, has fled, defeated.” They began to sport at will, drinking wine and eating meat. At that time Dvaipāyana, knowing a weak point, seized the opportunity. Many portents, resembling portents at the end of the world, appeared in Dvārakā, showing the gate to death. Meteors fell, thunderstorms took place, and the earth shook. Planets discharged smoke imitating fire. The disk of the sun, faulty, made a rain of coals and suddenly there was an eclipse of sun and moon. Clay puppets in the houses gave loud bursts of laughter and the gods painted in pictures laughed, too, frowning. Within the city wild animals roamed and Asura Dvaipāyana wandered, attended by witches, ghouls, vampires, et cetera.

In dreams the people saw themselves with red garments^[5] and ointment, sunk in mud, being dragged, facing the south. Bala’s and Kṛṣṇa’s jewels, the plow, cakra, etcetera disappeared; and then Asura Dvaipāyana created a whirlwind. He gathered up the wood, grass, et cetera everywhere in the city; and he brought the fleeing people from (all) quarters and threw them in the city. The whole city of Dvārakā, its trees uprooted by wind from eight directions, was filled with wood. After crowding together sixty crores of families from outside and seventy-two living inside into the city Dvārakā, the Asura lighted a fire. The fire blazed, like fire at the end of the world, with the sound dhagag, dhagiti, darkening the universe by the unbroken masses of smoke. The townspeople with their children and old people, unable to take a step as if chained together, remained made into a solid body.

Hari and Rāma put Vasuḍeva, Devakī, and Rohiṇī in a chariot to remove them from the fire. The horses did not move; oxen did not move, transfixed by the god, like serpents by a snake-charmer. Then Bala and Upendra themselves pulled the chariot, of which two axles were broken at once, like a piece of a reed, with the sound taḍat, taḍtti. Nevertheless, they got the chariot to the gate by their own strength, wretched in mind from the cries, “Oh! Rāma, save.” “Oh! Kṛṣṇa, save.”

The Asura immediately made double-doors in the gate and Rāma broke them like a clay dish with a kick. Nevertheless, the chariot did not go out, as if devoured by the earth; and the god said to Rāma and Kṛṣṇa: “What is this delusion of yours? You were told earlier, indeed, that there was no escape for any one here, except you two.^[6] For penance was sold by me.”

Then the parents said: “O sons, do you go. So long as you two live, all the Yadus live. What is dependent on heroism that has certainly been done for us by you, but this fate, hard to transgress, is very strong. We, bereft of good fortune, did not take initiation at Śrī Nemi’s feet. Now we shall experience the fruit of our actions.” When Rāma and Kṛṣṇa did not go, after being told this, then Vasudeva, Devakī, and Rohiṇī said: “Henceforth, our refuge is Śrī Nemi, Teacher of the There Worlds. We shall renounce the four kinds of food.^[7] Henceforth, we seeking a refuge, have found the refuge taught by the Arhats—Arhat, siddha, sādhu, and dharma. We belong to no one and no one belongs to us.” They, having made an ārādhanā, remained engaged in the namaskāra. Dvaipāyana rained fire on them, like a fire-cloud; and the three, Vasudeva and the others, died and went to heaven.

Rāma and Kṛṣṇa went outside the city to an old garden and continued to watch the city as it burned. The walls of jewels were reduced to powder, like pieces of stone; the pillars of gośīrṣa-sandal were reduced to ashes, like straw. The copings of the walls broke with the sound taḍal, taḍiti; the roofs of the houses fell in with the sound phaḍat, phaḍiti. There was no space between the flames there which were like the water in the ocean. Everything became one fire like one ocean at the destruction of the world. The fire danced, as it were, with hands of flames; the fire thundered, as it were, with its noise; it brought a net, as it were, in the guise of smoke for the fishes of citizens.

Then Kṛṣṇa said to Sīrin: “Alas! Alas! I, standing on a bank like a eunuch, watch my own city burning. As I am not able to save the city, I can not endure to sec it. Elder brother, say where we can go. Every place is barred to us.”

Balabhadra said;” Pāṇḍu’s sons are our friends and connections by blood and marriage. So we shall go to their house.” Kṛṣṇa said: “At that time^[8] they were banished by me. How can we, embarrassed by our own offence, go to their house?” Rāma said: “The noble keen in mind benefits, but never remember injuries, like a bad dream. Many times you have benefited Pāṇḍu’s sons. Grateful, they will make a pūjā, nothing else, brother. Do not think otherwise.”

Assured by Sīrin to this effect, Śārṅgin set out in the southeast to the Pāṇḍavas’ city, Pāṇḍumathurā.

Now, in the burning city Rāma’s son, Kubjavāraka, who was in his last body, (standing) on the top of a palace, his arms held up, said; “I am a disciple of Śrī Neminātha, now observing the vow. I was told by the Master that I, having the last body, would attain emancipation. If the Arhat’s pronouncement is authority, why am I burned by fire?” At this speech the Jṛmbhaka-gods conducted him to the Master’s presence.

At that time Śrī Nemi had stopped in the Pallava^[9] country and noble minded Kubjavāraka became a mendicant there. The wives of Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, and others, who had not been initiated previously, recalling Nemi, observing a fast, perished. Sixty and seventy-two crores of families were consumed. Thus the city was burned in six months and then was covered by the ocean.