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ŚREŅIKA, MEGHAKUMĀRA AND NANDIȘEŅA
Śrenika, borne by Dhāriņi.
The charioteer Naga (50-93)
Now, in that same city there was a charioteer, named Naga, a bee to King Prasenajit's lotus-feet. Liberal to the one deserving sympathy and assistance, a brother to other men's wives, strong, brave, knowing the arts, he was the depository of all the virtues. He had a wife Sulasa, who was untiring in meritorious works like an incarnation of the Śri of merit. Virtues-loyalty to her husband, right-belief, sincerity, et cetera-dwelt in her at the same time like playmates making mud pies together.
One day, charioteer Naga, who was childless, his face resting on the couch of his hand like a lotus on a lotus-stalk, thought aloud:
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"The wish of me who am sopless, I shall play with and caress a son,' has been fruitless like a barren plant. By whom chastity has not been practiced from childhood, by whom the face of a son has not been seen, shame on their unrestrained love deceiving the two worlds. 149
Sulasă, making the añjali respectfully, said to her husband, whose face was wan from anxiety, like an elephant immersed in mud:
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This hand-couch of your face betrays anxiety on your part, lord. What are you worrying about, lord? Tell me. Make me share in your anxiety.
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Nāga replied: "I am childless. I have a great desire for a child. There is no device for obtaining a child for the one desiring a child. "
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Sulasă said: Marry many other maidens. Will there not be one among them who will bear a child?"
Nāga said: I have a wife in you alone in this birth. Enough of other wives, to say nothing of children by them.
149 52. I.e., chastity would have obtained heaven; lack of a son causes unhappiness in this world.
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