Monks and Acharyas
From Robbery to Kevalgnan
लूट से केवलज्ञान तक · લૂંટથી કેવળજ્ઞાન સુધી
The fiercest robber of his age, and the gentlest six months of his life
- 5 min full story
- 2 min children's telling
- Best shared with a grown-up
- Shvetambar telling
Dradhprahari was a robber so feared that his very name meant one whose blows never fail. One terrible day in a poor Brahmin's house, he sees what he has become, and he chooses a path no one believes he can walk.
What it teaches Repentance Forgiveness Patience Transformation
The opening of the children's telling
Long ago there lived a man called Dradhprahari. When he was young, he made many bad choices. He became a robber, and he hurt many people. Everyone was afraid of him.
One day he went into the home of a poor family. They were making sweet kheer for their children. Dradhprahari got very angry, and he did something terrible. He hurt the mother and father and even their cow, and their lives came to an end.
Read the whole story See plans
To carry into the day
No soul is beyond hope when it truly repents and bears the results with patience.
To talk about together
Why do you think Dradhprahari chose to stand where the people he had hurt could find him, instead of hiding?
Retold for JainStory from the traditional narrative and checked against published Jain sources. Details vary between tellings.