8
is Vyadi. It came to pass that my father died. Owing to grief for his loss, the father of Indradatta went on the long journey,*[1] and then the hearts of our two mothers broke with grief; thereupon being orphans though we had wealth,[2] and, desiring to acquire learning, we went to the southern region to supplicate the lord Kartikeya. And while we were engaged in austerities there, the god gave us the following revelation in a dream. "There is a city called Pataliputra, the capital of king Nanda, and in it there is a Brahman, named Varsha, from him ye shall learn all knowledge, therefore go there." Then we went to that city, and when we made enquiries there, people said to us: "There is a blockhead of a Brahman in this town, of the name of Varsha." Immediately we went on with minds in a state of suspense, and saw the house of Varsha in a miserable condition, made a very ant-hill by mice, dilapidated by the cracking of the walls, untidy,[3] deprived of eaves, looking like the very birth-place of misery.
Then, seeing Varsha plunged in meditation within the house, we approached his wife, who shewed us all proper hospitality; her body was emaciated and begrimed, her dress tattered and dirty; she looked like the incarnation of poverty, attracted thither by admiration for the Brahman's virtues. Bending humbly before her, we then told her our circumstances, and the report of her husband's imbecility, which we heard in the city. She exclaimed—"My children, I am not ashamed to tell you the truth; listen! I will relate the whole story," and then she, chaste lady, proceeded to tell us the tale which follows:
There lived in this city an excellent Brahman, named S'ankara Svamin, and he had two sons, my husband Varsha, and Upavarsha; my husband was stupid and poor, and his younger brother was just the opposite: and Upavarsha appointed his own wife to manage his elder brother's house.[4] Then in the course of time, the rainy season came on, and at this time the women are in the habit of making a cake of flour mixed with molasses, of an unbecoming and disgusting shape,[5] and giving it to any Brahman who is thought to be a blockhead, and if they act thus, this cake is said to remove their discomfort caused by bathing in the cold season, and their exhaustion[6]
- ↑ i. e., died.
- ↑ Here we have a pun which it is impossible to render in English. Anátha means without natural protectors and also poor.
- ↑ Taking chhaya in the sense of sobha. It might mean "affording no shelter to the inmates."
- ↑ Dr. Brockhaus translates the line—Von diesem icttrde ich meinem Mannc vermiihlt, urn fti.
- ↑ Like the Roman fascinum. guhya = phallus.
- ↑ I read tat for tah according to a conjecture of Professor E. B. Cowell's. He informs me on the authority of Dr. Rost that the only variants are sa for tah and
