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YASASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
Karṇātaka rather than in Bengal. It is true that we hear of Jaina Samghas
in Bengal even at a later date, though the term Samgha has a slightly
different sense here. The Jaina writer Balacandra Sūri, for example,
tells us, in his Vasantavilasa-mahakarya (10. 25), that Samghapatis from
Lata, Gauḍa, Vanga and other places came to join Vastupala, the famous
minister of Gujarat, in his grandiose pilgrimage to Satruñjaya and Girnar in
1220 A. D. But, so far as Somadeva is concerned, his supposed migration from
Bengal does not appear to be supported by any reliable evidence so far
discovered.
APPENDIX II
THE VERSES ON THE COURTEZAN'S CORPSE AND A BUDDHIST LEGEND
The Buddhist antecedents of Sudatta's reflections on the corpse of a
courtezan lying in the charnel-field (Yasastilaka 1. 95ff.) have been discussed
in Chapter VI. That there was an underlying story going back to ancient
times seems certain; and the framework of the original narrative can be seen
in the story of Sirima, as related in the Dhammapada commentary composed
about the middle of the fifth century A. D. The story occurs in Book XI in
connection with Dhammapada 147, and is here summarized from Burlingame:
Buddhist Legends, Part 2, p. 330 (Harvard Oriental Series, Vol. 29). Certain
verses of Somadeva on the dead courtezan recall the concluding words of the
Teacher in the Buddhist legend.
Sirimā was a beautiful courtezan of Rajagaha, who used to give food
to eight monks regularly in her house. A certain monk, hearing of her
beauty, went to receive food in her house. She was ill at the time, but the
monk was so enamoured of her that he became indifferent to all about him,
and was unable to take any food.
"On that very day in the evening Sirima died. Thereupon the king
sent word to the Teacher, 'Reverend Sir, Jivaka's youngest sister Sirima is
dead.' When the Teacher received that message, he sent back the following
message to the king, 'Sirima's body should not be burned. Have her body laid
in the burning-ground, and set a watch, that crows and dogs may not devour
it.' The king did so. Three days passed, one after another. On the fourth
day the body began to bloat, and from the nine openings of her body, which
were like to sores, there oozed forth maggots."
The king then issued a proclamation ordering all to approach to
behold Sirima. He sent a message to the Teacher, asking that the Congre
gation of Monks presided over by the Buddha might approach to behold Sirima.
"Now that young monk had lain for four days without touching food,
paying no attention to anything anyone said to him; the rice in his bowl had
rotted, and his bowl was covered with mildew. The rest of the monks who
were his fellows approached him and said to him, 'Brother, the Teacher is
1 Introduction to Vasantavilasa Mahākavya (G. O. S.), p.
xii.