Part 2: Previous incarnations of Brahmadatta

In the past there was a son, named Municandra, of Candrāvataṃsa in the town Sāketa in Bharata in this same Jambūdvīpa. Weighed down by the pleasures of love like a porter by burdens, he took the vow under Muni Sāgaracandra. Guarding a mendicancy worthy of honor from the world, once upon a time he went with his guru to wander in a foreign country.

He entered a village on the road for alms and, becoming lost from the caravan, wandered in the forest like a deer lost from its herd. Overcome by hunger and thirst in the forest, he fell ill and was nursed by four cowherds like brothers. As a kindness to them he delivered a sermon. There is compassion on the part of the good even for those committing an injury; how much more for those bestowing help!

The four, possessing tranquillity, took the vow under him, like four forms of fourfold dharma.^[1] They observed the vow strictly, but two of them felt disgust with dharma. People’s course of mind is varied. The two went to heaven because of their penance, even though feeling disgust. Penance, practiced even for one day, necessarily leads to heaven.

After they fell, they became twin-sons of a slave, Jayavatī, by a Brāhman, Śāṇḍilya, in Daśapura. After they had grown up in course of time, at their father’s order they went to protect the field. Such is the duty of slaves. As they lay at night, one was bitten by a cobra, like a brother of Kṛtānta, that had emerged from a hollow in a banyan. The second one, walking around to find the snake, was soon bitten by the same evil snake, as if from enmity. As no antidote was available, the two, pitiable, died. As they had come, so they went. Alas for their fruitless birth.

They were born twin-deer of a doe on the plateau of Mt. Kaliṭjara and they grew up together. Roaming together with affection, the two deer were killed by a hunter. They both died at the same time by the same arrow. After death, they both were born twin-sons, as in former births, of a rājahaṃsī on the Gaṅgā. One day as they were playing in the same place, a fisherman caught them in a net and killed them by breaking their necks. Such is the fate of those devoid of dharma.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

See I, p. 18 ff. for an elaborate exposition of four-fold dharma: liberality, good conduct, penance, and state of mind.