Trishashti Shalaka Purusha Caritra

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

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

Now there is a large city Campā resplendent with banners on shrines, like beautiful rows of haṃsas on the Jāhnavī. Its king was named Jitaśatru, whose arm-pillars were as long as a serpent’s body, who was a temple of Śrī. There was in this city a householder, named Kāmadeva, wise, a refuge of many persons like a large tree on a road. He had a wife, named Bhadrā, with a fair form, endowed with beauty and grace, like beauty that had become immobilized. He had six crores of gold in deposit, six out at interest, and six engaged in business, and he had six herds of ten thousand cattle each.

At that time Śrī Vīra, as he wandered over the earth, stopped there in a garden named Pūrṇabhadra, an ornament on the face of the earth. Kāmadeva approached on foot the Blessed One and listened to the Master’s sermon that was nectar to the ear. Then Kāmadeva, pure in mind, took the twelvefold layman’s vows in the presence of gods, men, asuras, and the guru. He renounced women except Bhadrā; herds except the six herds; money except the six crores each on deposit, out at interest, and in business. He took restrictions on remaining objects, like Ānanda. Then he went to his own house, after paying homage to the Lord. When he told that he had taken the lay-vows, his wife Bhadrā also went and took the Jay-vows before the Master.

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