Samaraditya and the Fast That Was Never Broken

The opening of the story

There is a book that began as a rebuke. In the eighth century, the tradition says, Acharya Haribhadra Suri of Chittor was a man burning with grief. His two beloved disciples, Hamsa and Paramahamsa, had died, and his sorrow had hardened into a dangerous anger. In the middle of that anger a message reached him from his own guru, Acharya Jinabhata. It was not a long letter. It held only three Prakrit verses, and the verses were little more than names, set down two by two.

Gunasena and Agnisharma. Simha and Ananda, a father and his son. Shikhi and Jalini, a son and his mother. Dhana and Dhanashri, a husband and his wife. Jaya and Vijaya, two brothers. Dharana and Lakshmi, husband and wife again. Sena and Vishena, two cousins. Gunachandra and Vanamantara. Samaraditya and Girisena. Haribhadra read the names and understood at once what his guru was telling him, for he knew the story they pointed to: a hatred that had lasted nine lives. He let go of his anger, begged his guru's forgiveness, and then wrote the whole story out. He called it the Samaraiccakaha, the Story of Samaraditya, and it became one of the great novels of the Prakrit language. This is that story, told in our own words.