Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2026
In the Jaina Māhārāṣṭrī tales excerpted by the late Hermann Jacobi from the monk Devendra's commentary on the Jain canonical work Uttarādhyayana Sūtra, and published by him in his Ausgewählte Erzählungen in Mâhârâshṭrî (Leipzig, 1886), there is a puzzling stanza in the story of King Bambhadatta (Sanskrit Brahmadatta), for which I wish to offer an interpretation. This story is from the commentary on Chapter 13 of the Uttarādhyayana Sūtra, which is entitled Citta and Saṃbhüya (Sanskrit Citra and Sambhūta), the names of two Jain monks. One of these, Saṃbhūya, has been reborn as the universal emperor Bambhadatta, and the other is again a Jain monk; the chapter consists of a conversation between the two. The context, however, is the story of the two in a previous existence when they were the twin brothers Citta and Sambhūya.
1 On the use of these Hindi names for this tree cf. Upendranath Kanjilal, Forest flora of the School Circle, N-WP 351 (Calcutta, 1901).
2 For these seventeen varieties see Abhidhāna Rājendra 7.88, column 2 s.v. saṃjama.
3 [The foregoing article was offered as a contribution to the Edgerton number of Language (29:3), but reached the Editor too late to be included in that number.]