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duties of virtuous wives). Now in course of time the middle one of the three sisters gave birth to a son, and they all three vied with one another in love towards him. So it happened once upon a time that, as S'iva was roaming through the air, the mother of Skanda*[1] who was reposing on S'iva's breast, moved with compassion at seeing their love for their child, said to her husband, "My lord, observe, these three women feel great affection for this boy, and place hope in him, trusting that he may some day support them; therefore bring it about that he may be able to maintain them, even in his infancy." Having been thus entreated by his beloved, S'iva, the giver of boons, thus answered her: I adopt him as my protege, for in a previous birth he and his wife propitiated me, therefore he has been born on the earth to reap the fruit of his former austerities ; and his former wife has been born again as Patala, the daughter of the king Mahendravarman, and she shall be his wife in this birth also. Having said this, that mighty god told those three virtuous women in a dream,—"This young son of yours shall be called Putraka; and every day when he awakes from sleep, a hundred thousand gold pieces shall be found under his pillow, and at last he shall become a king." Accordingly, when he woke up from sleep, those virtuous daughters of Yajnadatta found the gold and rejoiced that their vows and prayers had brought forth fruit. Then by means of that gold Putraka having in a short time accumulated great treasure, became a king, for good fortune is the result of austerities.[2] Once upon a time Yajnadatta said in private to Putraka,—"King, your father and uncles have gone away into the wide world on account of a famine, therefore give continually to Brahmans, in order that they may hear of it and return: and now listen, I will tell you the story of Brahmadatta.
There lived formerly in Benares a king named Brahmadatta. He saw a pair of swans flying in the air at night. They shone with the lustre of gleaming gold, and were begirt with hundreds of white swans, and so looked like a sudden flash of lightning, surrounded by white clouds. And his desire to behold them again kept increasing so mightily that he took no pleasure in the delights of royalty. And then having taken counsel with his ministers he caused a fair tank to be made according to a design of his own, and gave to all living creatures security from injury. In a short time he perceived that those two swans had settled in that lake, and when they had become tame he asked them the reason of their golden plumage. And then those swans addressed the king with an articulate voice. 'In a former
