Kathakoca or Treasury of Stories

SR No.: 016059
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: C H Tawney
Publisher: Oriental Books Reprint Corporation New Delhi
Publication Year: 1975
Total Pages: 288
Language: English
Classification: Dictionary & Dictionary
File Size: 15 MB

Page 39

13
for the couple of máshas. He said to himself : 'If I delay about going to-day, some other man will ask before me and carry off the gold, so I will go early.' But when he had got half-way, the police seized him and bound him, supposing that he was a thief, and took him in the morning to the king's judgment-hall. The king, seeing that he was a man of mild disposition, released him from his bonds, and asked him who he was, and for what reason he went about at night. He related from the beginning the affair of the female slave, and explained why he wanted the two máshas of gold. The king said : Then ask whatever present you like, I am pleased with you.' The Bráhman said: 'I should like to consider before I ask.' The king said :
Then consider.' So the Brahman went and sat alone in an elevated spot and considered, but found that a hundred, a thousand, a lakh-nay, even a crore-of máshas would not satisfy his desires. At that moment he saw a hermit sitting in the padmasana* posture, who recited the following couplet:
Every song is babbling, every dancet is deceit:
All ornaments are burdens, all desires bring pain.' When the Bráhman heard this couplet, he was filled with the spirit of asceticism, and said to himself :
As a man's gains so is his avarice, by gain avarice is increased; The acts performed in two months cannot be expiated in & crore.'
When he had thus reflected, he plucked out his hair, and took a vow. He bestowed on the king a blessing on account of his having been the means of his conversion, and, after explaining the meaning of the couplet, he went to the forest a self-enlightened ascetic. So avarice is always to be avoided. Here ends the tale having reference to avarice.
In this very Bharata there is a city named Sáketapura.
In this city once lived a king STORY OF PRINCE YAÇOBHADRA. ng
ADRA. named Pundaríka ; his younger * A particular posture in religious meditation -- sitting with the thighs crossed, with one hand resting on the left thigh, the other held up with the thumb upon the heart, and the eyes directed to the tip of the nose.
† The word dance' must be taken to include acting.