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CHAPTER XCVI.
(Vetála 22.)
Then king Trivikramasena again fetched the Vetála from the top of the aśoka-tree, and put him on his shoulder, and as he was going along the Vetála said to him on the way, " King, you are good and brave, so hear this matchless tale."
Story of the four Bráhman brothers who resuscitated the tiger.:—There lived once on the earth a king, named Dharanívaráha, who was lord of the town of Pátaliputra.*[1] In his realm, which abounded in Bráhmans, there was a royal grant to Bráhmans named Brahmasthala; and on it there lived a Bráhman of the name of Vishnusvámin. He had a wife that was as well-suited to him as the oblation to the fire. And in course of time he had four sons by her. And when they had learnt the Vedas, and passed their childhood, Vishnusvámin went to heaven, and his wife followed him.
Then all his sons there, being in a miserable state, as they had no protectors, and having had all their property taken from them by their relations, deliberated together, and said, " We have no means of support here, so why should we not go hence to the house of our maternal grand-father in the village named Yajnasthala?" Having determined on this, they set out, living on alms, and after many days they reached the house of their maternal grandfather. Their grandfather was dead, but their mother's brothers gave them shelter and food, and they lived in their house, engaged in reading the Vedas. But after a time, as they were paupers, their uncles came to despise them, and neglected to supply them with food, clothes, and other necessaries.
Then their hearts were wounded by the manifest contempt shewn for them by their relations, and they brooded over it in secret, and then the eldest brother said to the rest; " Well ! brothers, what are we to do? Destiny performs every thing, no man can do anything in this world at any place or time. For to-day, as I was wandering about in a state of distraction, I reached a cemetery; and in it I saw a man lying dead upon the ground, with all his limbs relaxed. And when I saw him, I envied his state, and
- ↑ * I read with the Sanskrit College MS. Kusumapurákhyanagareśvarah. But Kusumapurákhye nagare svaráț, the reading of Professor Brockhaus's text, would mean " an independent monarch in the city of Pátaliputra," and would give almost as good a sense.
