The desert

The triangle of the Swan, the Eagle and the bright-eyed vulture had mountained the inky heavens. Seeing that it was late valsha decided to lay himself to rest on his litter. His body was racked with all manner of aches. The day that followed was not one to worry much about, so he unhurriedly lapsed into the hypogogic state. Most unexpectedly a beautiful woman appeared before him. She was not anyone whom he had ever seen in wakeful life. Nor had anyone like her every manifested in a dream nor in hypnogogia before. She had a long flowing black hair in a dense masses like the great bee-hive on the vast ashvattha tree near the pAShaNDa-gR^iha. Her eyes had a sparkle to them like heads of the asterism of the Twins. Her body was slim and shapely and wonderfully sculpted with breasts like the vessels that lustrate viShNupatnI. valsha was even more surprised when he heard her speak – it was in the gIrvANa bhAShA. valsha realized that in this tongue even the mundane sounded poetic. She introduced herself: “aham asmi paShupatAnAM pAtAla-rudrasya gahvare vAsA kukkuravati | asau gahvarasya samIpe eka uddhataH kedAro .asti | asmin kedAre vishAlo vaTavR^ikSho .asti | tasya adho .asti mama pIThikA |” Hearing her he wondered if she was a yakShiNI or a pishAchI or perhaps a shape-shifting rAkShasI. Neither her name nor her form was like any yakShiNI he had encountered before. Finally she directed him: “shayAyA uttiShTha, etasmin chaShake saMnihitaM rasaM piba, mama a~NgulyA mandaM chumba, mama upAnahanau gADhaM gR^ihNa! tvayA saha akAshe uDDayiShyamy ahaM hA hA! pashya pashya prakR^ites sarvAnAM niyamAnAM ati-la~nghanaM kariShyAmi | mama patham na j~nAtuM shaknoShi |”

She flew carrying valsha at a dizzying pace. Finally they landed in a place that looked strangely familiar to valsha; yet he was unable to make precisely identify it. It was a school building with an adjacent ground that looked like rat-nibbled roTikA. In the mid 1930s the Vatican had financed a bunch of German missionaries to go forth to the holy land of bhAratavarSha and convert the heathens. Uwe Christian led the operation with his fellows brothers and fathers. He was also a double agent for Das dritte Reich. He tried hard to entice some brAhmaNa-s to the fold of the preta, hoping that if he converted the brAhmaNa-s then he would gain easy control over the “superstitious lay”. With this intention he started a school named after one of the many dead pretAcharin-s who had been proclaimed to be a saint by the Vatican rulers due to performance of an even lamer miracle than those the unwashed Hindus were supposed to believe in. In this school he offered a proper western education that brAhmaNa parents were supposed to seek like a good bride for their dear sons. 1958 Christian was assassinated by an Israeli letter bomb. Shortly thereafter his school was bought by a Portuguese missionary group from Goa, who continued their operations in the service of the long decomposed corpse of Nazareth. But not long after that Goa was finally reconquered by the Hindus restoring the continuity of peninsular bhAratavarSha, which their old poet kAlidAsa had likened to a drawn bowstring. With that the school and the associated church declined into disuse. A few years later in a great monsoon storm the spire of the church was knocked down reminding the Hindus of might of the devaheti that strikes from above. The people in that part of the city were growing prosperous again after the dismal years that followed independence and felt the need for more schools for their children. So they decided to use the old school’s infrastructure for a new one. Having renovated it they reinitiated education in those premises in the form of a secular institution.

In the school, in the 9th class were studying students who went by the names saMpadA durnAmikA, satyo daridrasaMdha, harir babhru and mahAmada Agomado marusaMbhava. At that point kukkuravati briefly possessed their teacher. Their teacher then addressed the class indicating the topic for a small essay: “rAShTrIya dhvajasya pradhanaM arthavattvaM katamaM?”
Then valsha and kukkuravati unseen by the rest went to look at what those four students wrote.

saMpadA durnAmikA wrote: The national flag is symbol of India’s freedom. The length of the flag is 1.5 times that of its width. It is to be respected by all and never hoisted in peoples homes. No one should trod on it, burn it or defile it in any other way. It should be made by hand using cloth spun by the Gandhian wheel. If it is made using any other material then the person is liable to be interred in a jail for 3 years [Pointing to this sentence kukkuravati laughed and tapped valsha on his shoulder. valsha wondered if that was the real fate that awaited him for having flown a paper flag on some national day! saMpadA saw no one but heard the laugh of a woman. She wondered who could that be? May be it is my mind saying all this is so funny]. A real India flag is only be made in the state of karNATaka. People have to stand erect and sing the national anthem composed by shrI ravIndranAth when the flag is being hoisted.

satyo daridrasaMdha wrote: The flag was made by some Telugu guy [He had forgotten the guy's name. So he made it up: If there could be a Gandhi of the frontier in Afghanistan, why could we not have a Gandhi in Andhra. So let us call him the Andhra Gandhi]. At first B.G. Tilak had suggested a saffron flag with the picture of gaNesha. Aurobindo and Vankimchandra wanted the image to be that of a fierce kAlI with an upraised scimitar. Some other Hindu leaders wanted a cow on it. But the secularists wanted none of this. Eventually a flag was made to incorporate Gandhi’s wheel, a sign that the technology invented in the Indus valley civilization was still in unmodified use, the saffron color of the Hindus, the green color of the Mohammedans and the white for whatever other religions existed in the land.

mahAmada Agomado marusaMbhava wrote:

continued…

Ape and monkey

*For the purposes of this note the word ape means all animals closer to or within the clade containing the gibbon and man than to the clade containing the langur and the macaque. Monkey means all animals closer to or within the clade containing the langur and the macaque than to the clade containing the gibbon and man. Any animal closer to the monkeys and apes to the exclusion of the New World platyrrhines, but not a monkey or an ape as defined above, is termed a stem catarrhine.

New fossils from the Rukwa Rift in the Tanzanian part of Rift Valley described by Stevens et al are of interest with respect to the timing of the split between apes and monkeys. One of the most basal catarrhines, Catopithecus, was found in Fayum, Egypt, dating to about 34 Mya, i.e., the beginning of the Oligocene. Molecular evidence strongly suggests that the divergence between apes and monkeys happened sometime between 30-25 Mya. However, between 34 Mya, which is the age of the one of the earliest stem catarrhines, down to the earliest fossil monkey, Prohylobates (18 Mya), and the extremely archaic ape, Kalepithecus (~20 Mya), there are no fossils of clear cut apes or monkeys. Thus, we have lacked fossil from the critical period around the time when the molecular evidence suggests they diverged. This does not mean that there are no catarrhine fossils from the 34-20 Mya time window. We have basal catarrhines from the Fayum beds in Egypt such as Aegyptopithecus from around 30 Mya. We also have an enigmatic radiation of basal catarrhines that appears to have begun around 22 Mya, the pliopithecoids, and persisted till at least 7.5 Mya. The earliest member of this clade is Lomorupithecus from Uganda and the latest is Laccopithecus from Lufeng, China dating to the late Miocene. This suggests that the pliopithecoid radiation of catarrhines migrated to Asia and persisted alongside other more derived catarrhines including apes and monkeys. Closer to the crown group comprised of apes and monkeys are two fossils namely Saadanius, from what is today the hellhole of Saudi Arabia (~28 Mya), and Kamoyapithecus from Kenya (~25 Mya). Then there are two clades that cannot be specifically placed as being closer to or earlier branching than either monkeys or apes. These are Limnopithecus evansi and the dendropithecid clade comprised of Dendropithecus, Micropithecus and Simiolus and Limnopithecus legetet. Better fossils would probably be required to tell whether they are apes or monkeys or fall just outside of both of them. While they preserve anatomical features that might have been close in certain respects to the common ancestor of the apes and monkeys, all of these are from around 20-17 Mya, so they are not temporally very close to the branch point of the crown clades.

Phylogenetic tree of selected apes, monkeys and related primates by Stevens et al

If these proposed affinities of Nsungwepithecus and Rukwapithecus are true then it would mean that the ape-monkey split happened before 25.2 Mya, pushing the paleontological evidence for this split within the range estimated from the molecular evidence. In our opinion Stevens et al convincing demonstrate anatomical similarity between Nsungwepithecus and the basal monkeys of the victoriapithecid clade (which includes forms like Victoriapithecus and Zaltanpithecus). Of these Victoriapithecus is known from well-preserved remains from around 15 Mya and it a mid-sized monkey. Nsungwepithecus is clearly larger than Victoriapithecus and suggests that such a lineage of monkeys had persisted for more than 10 Myr. Likewise there are distinct similarities between Rukwapithecus and Rangwapithecus thus pulling it into the Nyanzapithecine/Mabokopithecine clade. Given that Rangwapithecus is from about 20 Mya, the discovery of Rukwapithecus suggests that a such a clade of basal apes was more than 5 Myr older. Given that the latest member of this clade Nyanzapithecus harrisoni is from around 13 Mya, this clade was rather long-lived (more than 12 Myr). Thus, at their upper end they overlapped temporally with more derived apes such as Morotopithecus and Afropithecus which are closer to the crown formed by extant lesser and great apes.

The first panel compares lower jaw M3s of various basal monkeys and catarrhines. The second panel compares the lower jaw P4-M3 series of various monkeys, apes and pliopithecids.

The pushing back of the Rangwapithecine apes to before 25 Myr also indirectly suggests that a major initial radiation of apes predated that period. This radiation in all likelihood gave rise to the lineages prototyped by Kalepithecus, Equatorius and the Proconsulines. Of these Proconsulines were one of the best known yet poorly understood in terms of phylogeny. A tentative phylogenetic statement is provided below based on Begun’s work. Unlike what is shown below it is possible that Equatorius forms a separate more primitive clade.

Begun’s phylogenetic scenario for apes

Also missing in the picture is the remarkable and enigmatic Ugandapithecus. Many paleoanthropologists considered it a species of Proconsul, the French researchers Pickford and Senut have been vehemently defending its distinctness. Recently, they have found a skull of this ape in Uganda and it awaits a detailed description. However, in press statements they have claimed that it might be closer to the great apes than other apes. If this really holds then we have a member of the great ape lineage going back to at least a little before 20 Mya. Close to great apes or not Ugandapithecus certainly promises to be a rather interesting branch of the ape lineage if nothing else due it is size – it appears to have attained the size of a fully grown male gorilla well before any other ape attained such proportions. However, its brain is still primitive being no greater in size than that of a baboon, a member of the monkey clade. This would suggest that even before 20 Mya apes were already attain great sizes, though they perhaps acquired their larger brains only sometime later. This indeed raises questions regarding the relationship between Ugandapithecus and Proconsul – the latter if defined to exclude the large remains (i.e. those now placed in Ugandapithecus) presents a smaller arboreal primate. Its teeth also point to a fruit-eating primate that was likely arboreal. In contrast, the large Ugandapithecus probably spent more time on the ground. On the other hand Proconsul, like Ugandapithecus had a rather modest brain, again at best comparable to a baboon. As per the phylogenetic opinion Begun these primitive apes lingered on until at least 9.5 Mya in the form of the poorly preserved ape Samburupithecus from Kenya. This ape too is moderately sized ape about as large as a female gorilla. Thus, while the fossil record of the ape lineage has been pushed back we still are unclear about the earlier radiations of our clade and whether the great apes first emerged in Africa or in Asia and then moved back to Africa. Indeed, forms like the highly derived European Oreopithecus show that there was much evolutionary “experimentation” among the apes in the last 25 Myr.

Vignettes of the wisdom of the kuru and the pa~nchAla

The defining element of our identity was the formation of the rAShTra by the kuru and the pa~nchAla, the foremost of the bhArata clans. It is the legacy of this rAShTra of the bhArata-s, rather than documents like the constitution of India, that forms the foundation on which our modern state rests. A mlechCha gentleman, evidently intending to pay a compliment, told us that he was impressed by fact that our “founding fathers” had managed to come up with a constitution that has managed to hold our country together, which by all logic should have broken up by now. We told that he was right about the “founding fathers” part but only that they go much farther back in time. Indeed, the farther our people recede from the wisdom of the kuru and the pa~nchAla enshrined in the “fifth veda” the more effete and irrelevant we are becoming in the world. Hence, those who still bother about such things might peruse of some of it:

Thus spoke nakula the fourth pANDava:

rAj~naH pramAda-doSheNa dasyubhiH parimuShyatAm |
asharaNyaH prajAnAM yaH sa rAjA kalir uchyate ||
The ruler whose delusion results in his people being plundered by dasyu-s, and [the ruler] who does not offer protection to his people [from dasyu-s] is said to be the manifestation of kali.

Thus spoke draupadI the princess of the pa~nchAla-s:

nAdaNDaH kShatriyo bhAti nAdaNDo bhUtim ashnute |
nAdaNDasya prajA rAj~naH sukham edhanti bhArata ||
Without punitive legislation a kShatriya cannot shine forth, without punitive ability he cannot attain power. The people of a ruler without punitive ability cannot attain happiness.

asatAM pratiShedhash cha satAM cha paripAlanam |
eSha rAj~nAM paro dharmaH samare chApalAyanam ||
Restraining the evil doers, cultivating the good, and showing agility in war: these are the highest duties of rulers.

kurute mUDham evaM hi yaH shreyo nAdhigachChati |
dhUpair a~njanayogaish cha nasya-karmabhir eva cha |
bheShajaiH sa chikitsyaH syAd ya unmArgeNa gachChati ||
One who due to stupidity [wishes to abandon the upholding of his state for asceticism as yudhiShThira wished to do upon realizing that he caused the death of karNa and others] will never attain any felicity. [Such a person should] be diagnosed as one who has taken the path of madness and should be given medical treatment using inhalants, medicinal pastes, drips delivered via the the nose, and other drugs.

*It is interesting to note that the methods for drug delivery seen in the medical saMhitA-s for the treatment of unmAda are recognized here by draupadI – their earliest forms likely arose in the kuru-pa~nchAla state.

Thus spoke bhImasena the second pANDava:

dvividho jAyate vyAdhiH shArIro mAnasas tathA |
parasparaM tayor janma nirdvaMdvaM nopalabhyate ||
There are two types of disease – of the body and of the mind. Each give rise to the other neither exists independently of the other.

shArIrAj jAyate vyAdhir mAnaso nAtra saMshayaH |
mAnasAj jAyate vyAdhiH shArIra iti nishchayaH ||
The mental diseases arise from bodily morbidity without doubt; likewise from mental disease emerge bodily diseases – this is certain.

shArIra mAnase duHkhe yo .atIte anushochati |
duHkhena labhate duHkhaM dvAv anarthau prapadyate ||
He who keeps pondering on past bodily or mental afflictions has new sorrow emerging from his thinking of old sorrows; thus he [ends up] saddled with two tragedies

*Here bhImasena recognizes that mental disease ultimately originates from a bodily problem. He also states that depression can give rise to a physical condition. Thus, he calls upon yudhiShThira to cast aside his depression and move on in life.

Thus spoke arjuna the third pANDava:

kShatra-dharmo mahA-raudraH shastra-nitya iti smR^itaH |
vadhash cha bharata-shreShTha kAle shastreNa saMyuge ||
It is known that the duty of the kShatriya is very fierce involving the constant use of weapons. O foremost bhArata, [it is known] that when their time comes they are killed in battle while engaging with weapons.

brAhmaNasyaapi ched rAjan kShatra-dharmeNa tiShThataH |
prashastaM jIvitaM loke kShatraM hi brahma-saMsthitam ||
Even a brAhmaNa who is firm in following the duties of a kShatriya leads a praiseworthy life as after all in this world kShatra power is also stationed on a foundation of brahma power.

kShatriyasya visheSheNa hR^idayaM vajra-saMhatam|
jitvArIn kShatra-dharmeNa prApya rAjyam akaNTakam ||
In particular a kShatriya’s heart is adamantine. By applying the kShatra-dharma he conquers foes and acquires a dominion free from trouble-makers.

Thus spoke vyAsa kR^iShNa-dvaipAyana:

yaj~no vidyA samutthAnam asaMtoShaH shriyaM prati |
daNDa-dhAraNam atyugraM prajAnAM paripAlanam ||
veda-j~nAnaM tathA kR^itsnaM tapaH sucharitaM tathA |
draviNopArjanaM bhUri pAtreShu pratipAdanam |
etAni rAj~nAM karmANi sukR^itAni vishAM pate||
Fire rituals, learning, exercise, being unsatisfied with [limited] prosperity, upholding punitive legislation, fierceness in battle and working for the welfare of ones people. Knowledge of the veda and rituals, performance of tapas, good conduct, acquisition of plentiful wealth and its distribution to deserving individuals – these are the duties of a kShatriya to be performed well O ruler of the people.

teShAM jyAyas tu kaunteya daNDadhAraNam uchyate
balaM hi kShatriye nityaM bale daNDaH samAhitaH ||
Amongst these, kaunteya, the wielding of punitive power is said to be the foremost. Strength must always be there in a kShatriya as punitive power depends on strength.

the gAthA of bR^ihaspati a~ngirasa:
bhUmir etau nigirati sarpo bilashayAn iva |
rAjAnaM chAviroddhAraM brAhmaNaM chApravAsinam ||

Just as a snake gobbles a burrowing rodent [the ways of] the world swallow a king who given to excessive non-violence and a brAhmaNa who is excessively devoted to one place [i.e. patron].

A record of the nAstika attack on hi~NgulA

Hindu historical tradition holds that bauddha-s of the sindhu had made common cause with the the Arab marUnmatta-s as they launched invasion after invasion into jambudvIpa. This is not entirely surprising given that the bauddha-s (at least the sthaviravAdin-s) from the sindhu (along with those of shrIlankA) had show a notable iconoclastic streak before they themselves fell prey to the buddha-busting beards. We have accounts that they burned vajrayANa tantra-s and demolished images of heruka-s such as hevajra at gaya. So it is hardly surprising that they made common cause with the marUnmatta-s blissfully unaware that the fate that they hoped for the Astika-s was to soon fall upon them, no just in the sindhu but throughout jambudvIpa. We also have some evidence for earlier iconoclastic activity on their part even though this is narrated in a perhaps anachronistic fashion in the bauddha chronicles such as the history of the lAma tAranAtha and chIna chronicles of the major saMghakAra-s.

Legend holds that upon the death of satI rudra was disconsolate and wandered carrying her calcined body. To relieve rudra of his sorrow viShNu hurled his chakra and cut the body of satI into fifty one pieces that fell all over bhAratavarSha defining its sacred geography by founding the sites of the shaktI pITha-s. Her brain is said to have fallen to the western boundary of bhAratavarSha and founded the pITha of hi~NgulA. It lies in the Makran desert (today in the Balochistan province of TSP) and is associated with several mud volcanoes. The nAstika-s narrate an account of how this shrine was “subjugated” by a tAthAgata:

“The shAkyasiMha had prophesied to his cousin Ananda that 300 years after his death (parinirvANa) a great bauddha would emerge who would spread their shAsana all over India. In a city called bhR^igukachCha in Gujarat there was a chieftain called darshana belonging to the kShatriya clan of the pANDu-s. He had a son called sudarshana who was richly endowed in wealth and had a retinue of beautiful women. One day while going to his garden with his ladies he saw an bauddha arihant known as shukhAyana. He bowed to arihant who offered him a lecture on the bauddha-mata. sudarshana underwent an instant conversion and sought to renounce the world and become an arihant himself. He then sought his father’s permission who instead bound him in chains. Then sudarshana showed miracles like levitation and emitting light and the like and his father acceded to him becoming an arihant. Thereafter he also converted his father to the bauddha way. Eventually, he became the supreme leader of the bauddha saMgha and acquired a great following among all the four varNa-s. In the sindhu lived a mighty yakShiNI hi~NgulAchI with great powers of mAyA. She cause epidemics in various lands and when people tried to flee those lands she assumed dreadful forms and blocked their paths. They used to offer her food drawn in a large cart by six oxen and also a man, a woman and horse. Then sudarshana decided to crush her. So he took alms of cooked food from a village in the sindhu and went to the temple of hi~NgulAchI and began eating it. He then desecrated her place by washing his mouth there. Furious, she showered stones and weapons at sudarshana. But he being an arihant meditated in undisturbed on compassion and these showered on him as followers. Then using his own miracle powers he set fire to the place. Burnt by it hi~NgulAchI became afraid and sought refuge in the arihant. He preached the bauddha-mata to her and converted her to the the bauddha way. Since her conversion no flesh or blood has ever been offered to her. Realizing that after him there would be none to crush the yakSha-s and nAga-s who did not follow the bauddha-mata he went on a mission of subduing 500 of such and established vihAra-s for the saMgha to propagate the buddha’s way. Then he went to chIna-s and spread the bauddha-mata among them to an extant.”

What is interesting in this account is that the description of the hi~NgulA pITha is fairly specific: 1) It is described as being in the west of bhAratavarSha in the sindhu province. 2) The custom of offering a large amount of food is mention – a practice which continued to a degree until recently despite the heavy hand of Islam over the region. Offerings were made in large amounts and carried to the mud volcano where they were offered directly into the geothermal vent. 3) The hurling of stones and weapons by hi~NgulA is probably an allusion to the volcanic activity of the site. The event is supposed to have taken place at the time of ashoka’s reign because sudarshana is supposed to have attained nirvANa just before ashoka’s death. It is possible that the bauddha chronicles composed much later anachronistically placed this attack on hi~NgulA in ashoka’s time and attributed it to an important arihant who supposed to have been greater the subsequent arihants. The figures are primarily early sthaviravAdin-s whose history was supposedly recorded by a kShemendrabhadra, the source of tAranAtha. It is possible the sthaviravAdins attributed the “conquest” of hi~NgulA back in time to sudarshana and this was taken up by the vajrayANa chroniclers later.

Some anti-Astika stories of the jaina-s

The nAstika-s, smarting from their poor performance relative to the sanAtana-dharma, resorted to several distinct tactics: imitation, appropriation and distortion. But one of the problems they faced was that their hard-won converts tended to lapse back into the Astika ground state – this was especially so when the nAstika-s started imitating and appropriating the Astika traditions. Thus, even the virulent anti-Astika polemicist, the jaina yogin haribhadra sUri, concedes that the jaina-s might worship Astika deities, or even the tathAgata, in addition to the nagna. But still they needed mechanisms to keep their flock from dropping the ford-makers or the tathAgata-s from their respective pantheons because that was the most likely outcome. In particular, the itihAsa-s being the most important vehicle of the sanAtana-dharma across all socio-genetic strata they focused their attack on them. Thus, we hear buddhaghoSha proscribing the saugata-s from listening to the mahAbhArata and the rAmAyaNa. The jaina-s in contrast also created their own distorted versions of these texts in which the original heroes are down-graded and made to give way to promulgators of jina doctrines. Another approach was to insert tales into traditional collections of stories or invent new story collections to show the original deities and traditions of the sanAtana-dharma in poor light or as being ineffective. We review below some such creations of the jaina-s, which also throw some light on the sociology of the era. One such is from the jaina bR^ihatkathA of hariSheNa – massive work from the first half of the 900s of CE that was printed in the 1940s (kathA 54):

In Gujarat there was a town called guDakheDaka, rich in wealth and food, and endowed with many scholars. Therein lived a zealous jaina couple, the man called jinadatta and his wife jinadattA. They had a daughter called jinamatI who was skilled in various kalA-s and also a zealous jaina. In the town was also a rich vaNija known as nAgadatta with a beautiful wife called nAgadattA. They had a son called rudradatta who was handsome, virtuous and an ardent worshiper of rudra. Once nAgadatta asked jinadatta to give jinamatI in marriage to rudradatta. However, jinadatta refused saying that there was no way a zealous jaina could marry a pious shaiva, adding that they felt that those who worship rudra are dismal idiots. But the young rudradatta butted in saying: “Indeed all religions lead to the same end; there is no difference between them. Uncle I will become a jaina today”. Saying so (in reality he was motivated by lust towards jinamatI), he went to the jaina school and and acquired jaina dIkSha from the teacher samAdhigupta and gave up the shaiva-mata. When jinadatta heard of this he gave his daughter to rudradatta. Upon marriage, rudradatta gave up the jina-mata and returned to the shaiva fold.

One day after lunch, when jinamatI was resting, rudradatta decided to introduce her to the shaiva tradition. He said: “beautiful girl, shiva had taught a great dIkSha, which brings and end to duHkha and uplifts the sinful. This dIkSha can succeed even if one has committed crores of sins and those who are imbued with zealous hatred.” Then he cited to her a shloka regarding this from a saiddhAntika tantra. He then told her to give up the jina-mata, which is not for knowledgeable people and accept saiddhAntika dIkSha that brings the bliss of mokSha. jinamatI retorted by saying that she had no intention of forsaking the jina-mata and advised rudradatta to forsake shiva and follow the jaina path, which she said was the was actual way of the intelligent people. The charming husband and beautiful wife then started quarreling and arguing a lot about their respective mata-s each trying to lecture the other on their respective traditions. After some days rudradatta angrily remarked that if he ever caught jinmati go to the jaina shrine or giving food to jaina mendicants he would evict her from the house. However, he would dote on her if she went to a rudra temple or gave food to wandering pAshupata-s. She threatened to commit suicide if he forced her to do so. She then proposed that if he eschewed visiting shaiva temples then she would not visit shrines of the nagna. Then they settled on a compromise with each worshiping as per their own mata.

To the east of the town was a dense jungle in which lived violent tribesmen. One day a tribal band raided the town and set fire to it. As the fire started nearing rudradatta’s house, the beautiful jinamatI told her husband that the deity who saves them from the fire will be the one whom they would follow. To this rudradatta declared that the fire was a small problem and that he would worship shiva to quench it. Facing the southern face of rudra he worshiped rudra and the lokapAla-s with various mantra-s. He called upon rudra to protect him and his wife in total conviction of the shaiva dIkSha. Each time he recited a name of rudra the fire on intensified and threatened to engulf them. At this jinamatI said may be the rudra mantra-s do not work so deploy other deties. rudradatta invoked brahmA, kumAra, viShNu, agni, sUrya, soma, gaurI and then the navagraha-s but their mantra-s also failed to quench the fire. Then terrified he said all these deities whom most people worship are not real gods. He implored jinamatI to invoke the nagna to save them from the conflagration. She then renounced all attachment to pleasure of the world invoked the ford-makers. Standing in deep dhyAna she made an offering to the nagna and right away the fire and the hordes of tribesmen vanished. At this miracle rudradatta gave up the shaiva-mata and became a jaina. Likewise many others from the town also did so seeing jinamatI’s miracle.

A second sample which we present is from samarAichchakahA a prAkR^ita collection of stories written by haribhadra sUri, which is also retold by hariSheNa in his bR^ihatkathAkosha:
The king yashodhara surprised his wife amR^itamatI while she was committing adultery. To save herself she poisoned the king and his mother chandramatI when they were sacrificing a piShTa-kukkuTa to chaNDikA. yashodhara was reborn as a peacock and chandramatI as a bitch. In the mean time yashodhara’s son yashomati ascended the throne as the king and acquired these animals as pets. The peacock had a brief recollection of his past birth and seeing former adulteress wife having sex with her lover pecked both of them. They struck the peacock wounding it. It was then attacked by the bitch (chandramati reborn) and killed. The king disturbed in his game of dice by all this clubbed the bitch killing it. Then yashodhara reincarnated as a mongoose to blind parents, while chandramatI is reincarnated as a cobra. One day while the mongoose was in a fight with this cobra, a hyena attacked them and killed both. Then yashodhara was reborn as a fish while chandramati reincarnated as a crocodile. The crocodile met an untimely death and soon was reborn as a wild female goat. The fish (yashodhara) was caught and fed to the adulteress queen mother amR^itamatI. He was then born as a wild male goat. In this life he was in copulation with the female goat (chandramatI reborn) when a rival male goat struck him with his horns and killed him even as he was discharging his semen. Now yashodhara was reborn as his own son via chandramati in female goat birth.

The king yashomati on a hunt killed the female goat chandramati but spared the baby goat yashodhara. Now chandramati was reborn as a she-buffalo. One day yashomati was planning a sacrifice of twenty buffaloes for the great goddess kAtyAyanI. One of the sacrificial days amR^itamatI the former queen did not want buffalo meat and instead requested mutton. So the goat (yashodhara reborn) got killed and fed to his former wife. Likewise, chandramatI reborn as a buffalo was sacrificed to kAtyAyanI and eaten by the royal court. Both of them were reborn as a cock and hen reared by the hunter chaNDakarman. One day chaNDakarman met a jaina yogin in the mold of haribhadra sUri, who started teaching him jaina yoga. In course of this he noticed the cock and hen and tells chaNDakarman their past lives and said that they were suffering these births due their adherence to kShatriya dharma. The birds hearing of their past life decided to accept the jaina-mata and in the joy of conversion started crowing. At this point yashomati is hunting with his wife and killed both birds with a single arrow. They were reborn as twins of yashomati’s wife.

One day when yashomati was hunting he ran into a jaina muni who asked him to stop hunting. Enraged he sent his dogs to kill the jaina, but they refused to do so. Seeing this he spares the muni who told him of the past births of his twin children. He also said that their births were all due to worshiping a cruel goddess with a piShTa-kukkuTa. The king became a jaina right away. His children became jaina ascetics and made the entire kingdom forsake vaidika and tAntrika animal sacrifices. They eventually committed jaina suicide and attained a divine state, which is followed by the whole kingdom becoming jaina.

kumAra gAthA

jaya atula-shakti dIdhiti pi~njara |
bhuja-daNDa-chaNDa-raNa-rabhasa |
sura-vadana kumuda-kAnana-vikAsanendo kumAra |
jaya ditija-kula-mahodadhi-vaDavAnala |
ShaNmukha madhura-rava-mayUra-ratha |
sura-mukuTa-koTi-ghaTTita-charaNa-nakhA~Nkura mahAsana |
jaya lalita-chUDa kalApa-nava-vimala-dala-kamala-kAnta |
daitya-vaMsha-duHsaha-dAvAnala |
jaya vishAkha vibho |
jaya sakala-loka-tAraka |
jaya devasenA-nAyaka skanda |
jaya gaurI-nandana ghaNTApriya |
priya vishAkha vibho |
dhR^ita-patAka prakIrNa-paTala |
kanaka-bhUShaNa bhAsura-dinakarach-ChAya |
jaya janita saMbhrama lIlA-lUnAkhilArAte |
jaya sakala-loka-tAraka ditijAsuravara-tArakAntaka skanda |
jaya bAla-saptavAsara |
jaya bhuvanAvali-shoka-vinAshana ||

Victory! him glowing golden from the radiance of his incomparable spear;
the one impetuous in battle with terrible, staff-like arms;
kumAra, who is the moon that causes the thicket of lotuses formed by the faces of the devas to bloom!
Victory! One who is the equine fire to the ocean the clan of diti’s descendents;
the six-headed one, with a sweet-crying peacock for a chariot;
One seated on the great throne with sprout-like toe-nails worshiped by the bowing crowned heads for crores of gods!
Victory! One with a charming crest, one shining with a garland of fresh, blemishless lotus petals;
the irresistible conflagration that burns the daitya clan!
Victory! vishAkha the opulent one!
Victory! protector of the whole world!
Victory! Lord of the deva army, skanda!
Victory! Son of the fair goddess, one delighted in the clang of bells;
dear, vishAkha, the opulent one;
holding a flag, with a diverse retinue;
ornamented with gems, with the complexion of the glowing sun!
Victory! One who has been born, the ever-active one, one who playfully lops off all enemies.
Victory! The protector of all worlds; the killer of tAraka the foremost of the diti-born asura-s, skanda !
Victory! The seven day old child!
Victory! The destroyer of the sorrows of the worlds!
[All epithets are in the singular vocative]

The kumAra-kANDa of the matysa purANa (159) preserves the above fairly ancient gAthA to kumAra.

This is also accompanied by the following stuti:

namaH kumArAya mahAprabhAya skandAya cha skandita-dAnavAya |
navArka-vidyud-dyutaye namo .astu te namo .astu te ShaNmukha kAmarUpa ||
pinaddha-nAnAbharaNAya bhartre namo raNe dAnava-dAraNAya |
namo .astu te .arka-pratima-prabhAya namo .astu guhyAya guhAya tubhyam ||
namo .astu trailokya-bhayApahAya namo .astu te bAla kR^ipAparAya |
namo vishAlAmalalochanAya namo vishAkhAya mahAvratAya ||
namo namaste .astu manoharAya namo namaste .astu raNotkaTAya |
namo mayUroj-jvala-vAhanAya namo .astu keyUradharAya tubhyam ||
namo dhR^itodagra-patAkine namaste namaH prabhAva-praNatAya te .astu |
namaste namaste vara-vIrya-shAline kR^ipAparo no bhava bhavyamUrte ||

ghaTotkacha

In mahAbharata the fiercest fighting takes place on the 14th day and vyAsa excels himself in the description of this awe-inspiring conflict of the kuru field. After the killing of jayadratha by arjuna during the evening solar eclipse the rage spilled over and rather than stopping at sundown the battle raged through the night. One of the great battles of the night was that between karNa and ghaTotkacha after the latter had beheaded alaMbuSha. Finally, karNa slew ghaTotkacha with the shakti given to him by indra in return for his kavacha and kuNDala-s.

saMjaya described ghaTotkacha thus to dhR^itarAShTra:

lohitAkSho mahAkAyas tAmrAsyo nimnitodaraH |
UrdhvaromA harishmashruH sha~Nku-karNo mahAhanuH ||
He was with: red eyes, and a massive body a coppery hued face and and a sunken belly; with hair pointing upwards, a tawny mustache, pointed ears and a massive jaw.

AkarNAd dAritAsyash cha tIkShNadaMShTraH karAlavAn |
su-dIrgha-tAmra-jihvoShTho lambabhrUH sthUlanAsikaH ||
With a mouth extending from ear to ear and terrible, sharp teeth; with coppery hued long tongue and lips, long eye brows and a large nose.

nIlA~Ngo lohita-grIvo giri-varShmA bhayaMkaraH |
mahAkAyo mahAbAhur mahAshIrSho mahAbalaH ||
He was blue in color with with a red neck tall as a mountain peak and terrifying; of gigantic body, great arms, a big head and of great strength.

vikachaH paruShasparsho vikaTodbaddha-piNDikaH |
sthUlasphig gUDhanAbhish cha shithilopachayo mahAn ||
With hairless, rugged skin, and hair on head tied into a terrifying knot. With great hips, a deep navel and a great mass of flexible muscle.

tathaiva hastAbharaNI mahAmAyo .a~NgadI tathA |
urasA dhArayan niShkam agnimAlAM yathAchalaH ||
With arm-guards, possessed of great magical powers, he also bore shoulder guards. On this chest was an ornament like a blazing volcanic ring.

tasya hema-mayaM chitraM bahu-rUpA~Nga-shobhitam |
toraNa-pratimaM shubhraM kirITaM mUrdhny ashobhata ||
His head was decorated by a golden, beautiful diadem endowed with many beautiful links, shining like an arch.

kuNDale bAla-sUryAbhe mAlAM hema-mayIM shubhAm |
dhArayan vipulaM kAMsyaM kavachaM cha mahAprabham ||
With ear-rings like the rising sun, and beautiful chains made of gold. He wore on his body gigantic armor of bell-metal that shone greatly.

ki~NkiNI-shata-nirghoShaM rakta-dhvaja-patAkinam |
R^ikSha-charmAvanaddhA~NgaM nalva-mAtraM mahAratham ||
With a hundred tinkling bells and blood-red flags;with seats covered with bear-skins was his giant battle car the size of a nalva.

sarvAyudhavaropetam Asthito dhvajamAlinam |
aShTa-chakra-samAyuktaM megha-gambhIra-nisvanam ||
Equipped with all kinds of weapons, it had a tall standard with garlands; equipped with eight wheels it made the deep noise of thunder-clouds.

tatra mAta~Nga-saMkAshA lohitAkShA vibhIShaNAH |
kAma-varNa-javA yuktA balavanto .avahan hayAH ||
It was borne by horses that were like elephants, red-eyed and terrifying, assuming any color they wished, endowed with great speed and might.

vahanto rAkShasaM raudraM balavanto jita-shramAH |
vipulAbhiH saTAbhis te heShamANA muhur muhuH ||
They bore that terrible rAkShasa imbued with great might and without fatigue with long manes and neighing repeatedly.

rAkShaso .asya virUpAkShaH sUto dIptAsyakuNDalaH |
rashmibhiH sUrya-rashmyAbhaiH saMjagrAha hayAn raNe ||
A rAkShasa of terrible eyes, was his charioteer, with a blazing mouth and ear-rings; with reins shining as rays of the sun he lead the horses into battle.

sa tena sahitas tasthAv aruNena yathA raviH |
saMsakta iva chAbhreNa yathAdrir mahatA mahAn ||
With that [charioteer] he came to battle like the sun borne by aruNa. [ghaTotkacha] appeared like mighty mountain peak shrouded by clouds.

diva-spR^ik sumahAn ketuH syandane .asya samuchChritaH |
raktottamA~NgaH kravyAdo gR^idhraH parama-bhIShaNaH ||
The tall standard erected in his [car] was like a comet across the sky; A most terrifying flesh-eating vulture with blood-red body [was pictured on it].