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him. And the king also told to his confidential ministers, after dismissing the crowd, the lying tale of an attempt to outrage her, which she had told against Gunaśarman. Then Gunaśarman said— " King, who told you such a falsehood, who painted this aerial picture?" When the king heard that, he said, " Villain, if it is not true, how did you know that the poison was in the dish of rice?" When Gunaśarman said— " Everything is known by wisdom," the other ministers, out of hatred to him, said, " That is impossible." Then Gunaśarman said, " King, you have no right to speak thus without enquiring into the truth of the matter, and a king devoid of discrimination is not approved of by those who understand policy." When he repeated this over and over again, the king exclaimed that he was an insolent wretch, and aimed a sword-cut at him. But he avoided that blow by employing his trick of fence, and then the other followers of the king struck at him. And he eluded their swords by his artifices of fence, and baffled the exertions of them all. And he fettered them, binding them with one another's hair, shewing wonderful skill in the employment of his trick of disarming. And he made his way out by force from that hall of assembly of the king, and he killed about a hundred warriors, who pursued him. Then he put on his eyes that ointment serving to render him invisible, which he had in the corner of his garment, and immdiately left that country without being seen. And he made towards the Dekhan, and as he was going along, he thus reflected on the way: " Surely that foolish king was set on by that Aśokavatí. Alas ! women whose love is slighted are worse than poison ! Alas ! kings who do not investigate the truth are not to be served by the good !" While engaged in such reflections, Gunaśarman came at last to a village, there he saw a worthy Bráhman under a banyan-tree teaching his pupils. He went up to him and hailed him. And the Bráhman, after welcoming him, immediately asked him, ' Bráhman, what recension of the Vedas do you recite, tell me." Then Gunasarman answered that Bráhman,— " Bráhman, I recite twelve recensions, two of the Sámaveda, two of the Rigveda, seven of the Yajurveda, and one of the Atharvaveda." Then the Bráhman said— " You must be a god," and he went on to say to Gunaśarman, whose shape revealed his excellence; " Tell me, what country and what family did you adorn by being born in them? What is your name and how did you learn so much?" When Gunaśarman heard this, he said to him:
Story of Adityaśarman the father of Gunasarman.:—In the city of Ujjayiní there was a Bráhman's son named Ádityaśarman, and when he was a child, his father died, and his mother entered the fire with her husband. Then Ádityaśarman grew up in that city, in his uncle's house, reading the Vedas, and the books of knowledge, and also the treatises on accomplishments. And alter he had acquired knowledge, and
