Lakshmana Wins Jitapadma

Rama, wise in justice, had Vijayaratha, son of Ativirya, anointed and gave him his father's kingdom; when Vijayaratha displayed all his treasure, Rama returned it to him. Vijayaratha offered his sister Ratnamala to Lakshmana, who accepted, delighted by her beauty as if she were Lakshmi herself, and after worshipping the Jina the brothers returned to Prithvidhara's city of Vijayapura.

In Ayodhya, Bharata heard that Ativirya, seized by a dancer, had turned from the world and taken Jina-diksha; when Shatrughna laughed at Ativirya, Bharata checked him, saying that the king who abandons the pleasures that bring great sorrow is blessed, for by the power of austerity even an enemy becomes a guru worthy of reverence. Vijayaratha then came with many vassals and gave Bharata in marriage Vijayasundari, the elder sister of Ratnamala, with great wealth, and Bharata showed him deep affection.

Bharata rode a swift horse to the rugged, lion-haunted mountain where Muni Ativirya sat alone on a rock as a Jinakalpi (a monk keeping the strictest solitary discipline); he dismounted, praised him, begged his forgiveness, circled him three times and returned to Ayodhya with thousands of warriors. In court he wondered where those dancers had gone who had praised him before Ativirya and seized the king, concluding that such power is not found in women and must be the work of the guardian gods of the Jina teaching, and thereafter he lived happily with Vijayasundari, like Megheshvara with Sulochana.

When the three prepared to leave Vijayapura, Vanamala tearfully asked why Lakshmana had saved her from death only to abandon her, and he swore that if he did not return soon, may he suffer the fate of one without right faith and the sin of reviling sadhus, explaining that to honour their father's word they were bound for the southern ocean and would fetch her after building a dwelling near the Malaya mountain. They slipped away with Sita at night, leaving the city grieving and Vanamala turning her mind to the Jina teaching, and, enchanting everyone on their way, reached Kshemanjali, where they camped in a dense forest like gods in the Saumanasa grove and Lakshmana prepared many dishes and grape juice.

With Rama's leave, Lakshmana, in garlands and yellow garments, entered the city past lofty Jina temples and heard people say that Princess Jitapadma would marry only a man who survived a blow of her father's shakti, a feat no one would attempt even for the kingdom of heaven. He learned that she was the daughter of King Shatrudamana and Queen Kanakaprabha, named Jitapadma because her beauty had conquered (jita) the lotus (padma); skilled in every art, she could not bear even the name of a man, no one dared utter a masculine word before her, and she lived in palaces white as Kailasa, served by hundreds of companions.

Amazed and somewhat angered, Lakshmana went to the palace and was admitted before the king, but did not bow; he said he was a servant of King Bharata touring the earth and called the princess a vicious, butting cow who troubled everyone. When Shatrudamana repeated his condition, Lakshmana told him to hurl not one but five shaktis with all his might, and Jitapadma, watching from a window and smitten with him, begged him with folded hands not to take the blow, while he signalled to her not to fear.

The furious king hurled a shakti blazing like fire; Lakshmana caught it in his right hand as Garuda seizes a serpent, the second in his left, the third and fourth under his arms, looking like a four-tusked elephant, and the fifth in his teeth like a lion seizing a doe, while the gods rained flowers, drums sounded and Lakshmana called for more. The court trembled, the king bowed his head in shame and Jitapadma came to stand beside Lakshmana like Shachi beside Indra; Lakshmana at once humbly said, ‘Uncle, we are your children, forgive our offence,’ and Shatrudamana embraced him, praising the valour of the man who had humbled him, a tamer of rutting elephants.

Amid music and gifts the king offered Jitapadma's hand, but Lakshmana deferred to his elder brother and sister-in-law camped nearby, so the king brought the pair in a chariot with his whole family to Rama; Sita, hearing the army's roar, feared trouble until women dancing with auspicious offerings appeared, and Shatrudamana bowed at Rama's feet, took them to his palace and served them for some days. Then at midnight the three departed, Lakshmana reassuring Jitapadma as he had Vanamala, and Gautama tells Shrenika that by past merit kings and people everywhere served them and every comfort came unasked, yet they stayed detached from pleasures until the time for munihood should come.