Chapter 2.5 - Summary of Yasastilaka, Book 5

The ascetic boy describes the rebirths of Yasodhara and his mother Candramati after their tragic death. a) Yasodhara was reborn in a family of peacocks inhabiting a large tree in a well-watered valley to the north-east of the Suvela mountain. There he was caught by a hunter and presented to Yasomati, who had ascended the throne after Yasodhara's death. The peacock miraculously remembered the events of his former birth, and recognised the old scenes and associates as soon as he entered the city of Ujjayini and saw the royal palace: saiveyam nagari tadeva bhavanam ta eva kelidharah saivaisa vanabhuh sa eva sarasisare vilasacalah | saivasau banita sa eva tanayaste caiva me bandhavascitram kevalameka eva hi katham jato'hamanyakrtih || Meanwhile, Candramati was reborn as a dog in a cowherd settlement in Karahata, a country lying to the south of the Vindhya mountain. It so happened that the dog was also presented by the owner to the king, who was glad to receive so fine an animal for his hunting excursions. One day the peacock wandered to the seventh floor of the royal palace, and discovered Amrtamati dallying with her paramour, the cripple. The peacock became mad with rage and attacked the pair with his beak, wings and throat. The serving maids saw this, and raising a hue and cry, struck the bird with whatever they found ready to hand, caskets, canes, fans and shoes. The dog, too, came and rushed upon the bird and killed him. The king, who was playing a game of dice nearby, saw the dog attacking the peacock, and dealt a blow at the animal with the board, killing him outright. b) In the next birth Yasodhara became a stag and Candramati a serpent. On the very day of his birth, the former developed a taste for snake's flesh, and discovered the serpent while digging up ant-hills with his horns. He at once started to devour the reptile, but the hoarse sound emanating from his throat, gorged with snake's flesh, awakened a hyena asleep in a neighbouring grove of Kadamba trees, and the stag in his turn became the hyena's prey. c) Yasodhara was then reborn as a huge fish and Candramati as a crocodile in the Sipra. One day, during the water-sports of the women of Ujjayini in the river, a maid of the royal household was seized by the crocodile, and Yasomati, in anger, ordered the fishermen to destroy all dangerous animals in the river. They at once got into all kinds of fishing craft; and in the course of the operation, the crocodile was pierced in the throat by a spear, and the fish, too, caught in a net. Both of them

were brought ashore, and ordered by the king to be made over to the cook of a hospice for Brahmins. Everyday slices from their bodies were cooked and served to the inmates until they both expired after prolonged sufferings. d) After this, Yasodhara and Candramati were reborn as a pair of goats in a herd of sheep in the village of Kankahi, near Ujjayini. One day, while the male goat (Yasodhara) was covering the female, the herd got scared, and the leader of the rams attacked the billy-goat with his horns. The goat died, but was reborn in the womb of the she-goat. One day Yasomati came there on a hunting expedition, accompanied by a large number of hunters; but unable to kill any game in the woods, he returned, angry and disgruntled, and while passing through the herd, hit the she-goat (Candramati) with an arrow, ripped open her belly, and found the kid in the womb. The young goat was entrusted to the care of the chief cook, and passed a few months in the royal kitchen. There he saw Amrtamati teaching the cooks how to roast meat, but she had been stricken with leprosy in consequence of her sins, and her loathsome body emitted so foul a smell that the attendants had to go about, covering their noses. Besides, the maids used to point at her mockingly, and tell passers-by how she had administered poison to her husband, the great and good Yasodhara. Meanwhile, the she-goat, after her death, was reborn as a buffalo in Kalinga. Purchased by the owner of a caravan, the animal came in course of time to Ujjayini, and used to swim in the Sipraa. One day he happened to meet Yasomati's horse, and immediately made a murderous attack on the latter, owing to the innate mutual hostility of the two species of animals As a punishment, the buffalo was tortured to death under the orders of the king. The young goat, too, was killed for the table of Amrtamati who was inordinately fond of meat. e) Yasodhara and his mother Candramati were next reborn as a cock and a hen, but there is a prelude to the story. A sage named Manmathamathana was engaged in deep meditation on the Vijayardha mountain. A Vidyadhara named Kandalavilasa, who was going over the mountain in his aerial car, was ashamed to find that the motion of the vehicle was checked by the mystic force of the sage. By way of retaliation, the Vidyadhara decided to exercise his own magical powers to interrupt the meditation of the sage, and conjured up a scene of terror, by producing torrential rain, hail-stones and hurricanes, and a crowd of goblins, decked with serpents. Ratnasikhandin, the king of the Vidyadharas, who was coming to worship the sage, was enraged to

see the evil action of Kandalavilasa, and cursed him, saying that as a result of his offence he would become a hangman in the city of Ujjayini. Implored by the Vidyadhara for mercy, Ratnasikhandin decreed that he would regain his former state and powers, if he ever had an opportunity of meeting the great sage Sudatta, and received religious instruction from him. Incidentally, the king of the Vidyadharas related that Sudatta was once the mighty king of Kalinga. One day a thief was produced before his court and accused of having murdered and robbed a barber in his sleep. The judges, consulted by the king, opined that the culprit should be subjected to various kinds of torture and maltreatment in such a way that he might expire in ten to twelve days. Hearing this verdict, Sudatta pondered over the dilemma of kings: if they served the cruel ends of justice, they were bound to incur sin; if they did not, there would be social disorder and imputation of cowardice. Failing to solve the problem of reconciling justice with mercy, Sudatta renounced his kingdom and became a Jaina monk. In due course the Vidyadhara appeared in the role of a hangman in Ujjayini, and Yasodhara and Candramati were reborn as a cock and a hen in a Candala settlement in the vicinity of the city. One day the hangman who was known as Candakarman, happened to see the birds in the hands of a Candala boy, acquired them from him, and took them to Yasomati. The latter was about to start for the garden of the Temple of the Thousand Spires, accompanied by a large retinue composed of boon companions and women of the harem, for the purpose of celebrating the worship of Makaradhvaja, the god of love. The king asked Candakarman to take the birds to the scene of the festival and give an exhibition of cock-fighting. The temple garden was full of orange-coloured tents and rows of pavilions erected for the festival. Candakarman went there with the birds in a cage, accompanied by the augur Asuri, a Bhagavata; the astrologer Dhumadhvaja, a Brahmana; the Saiva Haraprabodha, an expert in divining underground treasure; and the Buddhist Sugatakirti, a consummate cheat. There they saw Sudatta under an Asoka tree, and severally expounded before the sage the philosophical tenets followed by each. Sudatta refuted all their doctrines, and explained that Ahimsa or non-injury to living creatures is the basis of Dharma, the sole means of attaining worldly happiness and final beatitude. In illustration of his point, he referred to the sufferings of the two birds in their various previous births as a result of obeying the law of violence, and briefly mentioned the circumstances of the death of Candramati and Yasodhara and the succession of their births. Candakarman and his companions, chastened by the teachings of the sage, took the

vow of Jaina laymen; and Candakarman himself, having fulfilled the conditions of the curse inflicted upon him, regained his former status and departed for the world of the Vidyadharas. eam Meanwhile, Yasomati was enjoying the company of his consort Kusumavali in a tent in the garden. Wishing to show her his skill in hitting invisible objects with arrows simply by hearing the sound, he shot an arrow which pierced and killed the cock and the hen left behind by Candakarman. Soon after, Kusumavali conceived, and the birds found their next birth in her womb. During the ante-natal period, the queen implored the king to proclaim protection from injury for all creatures and prohibit the sale of wine and the use of meat. Further, she expressed a keen desire to have teachings on kindness to living creatures expounded to her, and worship holy women noted for their self-control. The king was convinced that he was going to have a child with an innate leaning towards the Jaina religion, and tried his best to fulfil the wishes of the queen. In due course Kusumavali gave birth to a pair of twins, a boy and a girl, who were respectively called YASASTILAKA and Madanamati, better known as Abhayaruci and Abhayamati, on account of the mother's solicitude for abhaya or 'protection from injury' The children for all creatures during the period preceding their birth. grew up, and it was rumoured that Abhayaruci would soon be made crownprince, and Abhayamati married to the king of Ahicchatra. One day Yasomati went hunting, and happened to see the sage Sudatta in the garden of the Temple of the Thousand Spires. Ajamara, a boon companion of the king, suggested that the inauspicious sight of the naked ascetic augured ill for the hunt, and this annoyed the king and made him feel disgust for the sage. A merchant named Kalyanamitra, who had come to pay homage to Sudatta, entreated Yasomati not to be disrespectful towards the saint, who was once the king of Kalinga and renounced his throne to practise religious austerities. The merchant and Yasomati then both paid their respects to the sage, who greeted the king with a benedictory verse, and uttered a panegyric (p. 262): svam viravairivanitanayanendukantanisyandasampadi mato'si naresa raja | aditya eva ca bhavannahitangananga nistokasokatapanopaladipanesu || The affable conduct of the sage touched the king to the heart; and repenting that he should have ever harboured ill-feeling for so good a man, he resolved within himself to cut off his own head and lay it at the feet of the sage as an expiatory offering. The latter at once read Yasomati's thoughts and forbade him to do such a thing. The miraculous power of the sage astonished the king, who now questioned him about the whereabouts of his departed parents and grand-parents after their death. The sage

related that Yasorgha, the king's grand-father, after practising religious austerities according to Jaina tenets, became after his death a divine sage, while his mother Amrtamati went to the fifth hell in consequence of her sins. As for his father Yasodhara and grand-mother Candramati, they had to undergo countless sufferings in many a birth owing to the sin of having sacrificed a cock made out of flour-paste in lieu of living animals, and have now been reborn as Yasomati's own children, Abhayaruci and Abhayamati. The words of the sage made the king realise the enormity of his own sin on account of having killed numerous animals and partaken of their flesh since his early childhood. Disgusted with life, he made up his mind to follow the path of religion, but before renouncing the world, narrated to Abhayaruci and Abhayamati the story of their previous births. The ascetic boy (Abhayaruci) now relates to Maradatta that he and his sister Abhayamati, on hearing their father's words, suddenly remembered their former births, and decided in their turn to renounce the world, although they were at that time only about eight years old. Owing to their tender age, they became religious apprentices under the sage Sudatta, and travelling in his company, had arrived at the outskirts of Ujjayini, when they were arrested by Maradatta's men and produced before him. The narrative of the ascetic boy visibly moved Maradatta, and the latter, having realised that worldly happiness is like a dream or a magic show, expressed his desire to enter the order as a novice. Abhayaruci advised him to see the sage Sudatta, and both set out to meet the great teacher.