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NINTH CHAPTER: MAKANDI: INTRODUCTION
Title Mayandi-Makandi-a name. Vices and virtues as well as the good and bad results of cravings and indifference for sensual pleasures have been explained with the help of the story of the two sons of the merchant named Makandi.
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Gist of the story-A merchant named Makandi lived in Champa. He had two sons named Jinapalit and Jinarakshit. They had done eleven sea voyages and wanted to go on a twelfth. Their parents told them that a twelfth sea voyage is always inauspicious and painful and so they should abandon the idea. The sons persisted and at last the parents relented.
They filled their ships with cargo and commenced their voyage. When they went hundreds of Yojans over the sea their ship was caught in a storm and it capsized. All the cargo and the passengers drowned, but the sons of Makandi caught hold of a large wooden plank and drifted to a nearby island named Ratnadveep.
On that island, in a large mansion, lived the evil goddess of Ratnadveep. Through her magical powers she saw the sons of Makandi in their wretched state. She at once arrived near them and said that if they wanted to save their lives they would have to submit to her libidinous designs. The terror stricken sons of Makandi agreed to whatever she said.
The goddess brought them to her palace and started satisfying her lust. After some days, god Susthit gave her the job of cleaning the sea. The goddess informed the sons of Makandi of this and said that as long as she was busy with this work they could enjoy the facilities of the large mansion. If they got bored they could proceed to the eastern, northern, or western gardens. But they should never go to the southern garden because in that garden lived a giant venomous serpent that could kill them instantaneously.
The goddess proceeded for her job. Soon the two brothers got bored and lonely. One after the other, they went to the three gardens they were allowed to visit. But soon they got bored with these and proceeded in the direction of the southern garden.
There they came to a large execution ground and saw a person on a gibbet. He was wailing pathetically. They enquired about him and his desperate condition. The man informed them that the execution ground belonged to the evil goddess and he was a horse trader from Kakandi. His ship had capsized and he had drifted to Ratnadveep. The goddess had taken him to her mansion and had indulged in her lewd enjoyments. One day she got extremely annoyed with him and put him into his current predicament.
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The sons of Makandi got panicky and asked how could they save themselves from the clutches of the evil goddess? The man on the gibbet explained that in the eastern garden there was a temple of a demigod named Shailak, who was in the form of a horse. On the
CHAPTER-9: MAKANDI
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