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CHAPTER III.
Having thus spoken while Kánabhúti was listening with intent mind, Vararuchi went on to tell his tale in the wood.
It came to pass in the course of time, that one day, when the reading of the Vedas was finished, the teacher Varsha, who had performed his daily ceremonies, was asked by us, " How comes it that such a city as this has become the home of Sarasvatí and Lakshmi,*[1] tell us that, O teacher." Hearing this, he bade us listen, for that he was about to tell the history of the city.
Story of the founding of the city of Pátaliputra.:—There is a sanctifying place of pilgrimage, named Kanakhala, at the point where the Ganges issues from the hills, †[2] where the sacred stream was brought down from the table-land of mount Uśínara, by Kánehanapáta the elephant of the gods, having cleft it asunder. ‡[3] In that place lived a certain Brahman from the Deccan, performing austerities in the company of his wife, and to him were born there three sons. In the course of time he and his wife went to heaven, and those sons of his went to a place named Rájagriha, for the sake of acquiring learning. And having studied the sciences there, the three, grieved at their unprotected condition, went to the Deccan in order to visit the shrine of the god Kártikeya. Then they reached a city named Chinchiní on the shore of the sea, and dwelt in the house of a Bráhman named Bhojika, and he gave them his three daughters in marriage, and bestowed on them all his wealth, and having no other children, went to the Ganges to perform austerities. And while they were living there in the house of their father-in-law, a terrible famine arose produced by drought, thereupon the three Bráhmans fled, abandoning their virtuous wives, (since no care for their families touches the hearts of cruel men,) then the middle one of the three sisters was found to be pregnant; and those ladies repaired to the house of Yajnadatta a friend of their father's: there they remained in a miserable condition, thinking each on her own husband, (for even in calamity women of good family do not forget the
not suppose that Somadeva took the pains to be exact here; but it is satisfactory to be made acquainted with the general impressions of a writer who has not been biassed in any of his views by Pauránik legends and preposterous chronology."
