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76
JAIN JOURNAL
Woman :
My name is Vishakha. I live in this very town of Kundagram. My husband was an ordinary worker. He died last year.
Yashoda :
Compose yourself. Our heartfelt sympathies for you. A woman without husband is like a river without water. But this has no bearing on your offence.
Woman :
Madam, I have three sons. They are starving. My husband has left no money to enable me to bring up the three children. I cannot bear their pangs of hunger.
Vardhaman :
Why did you not inform us about your poverty ?
Woman :
Sir, I dare not. Who would grant permit to an insignificant woman like me to enter the royal palace ?
Vardhaman :
The doors of our palace are always open to all citizens.
Woman :
My neighbours stopped me. They told me that my presence in the palace will be reckoned as an ill-omen and I will be punished. My neighbours envied my husband. That is why they revel in our present misery.
Vardhaman :
Chief, such unkindly neighbours should be spotted out and brought before us.
Police Chief:
It shall be done, my Lord.
Yashoda :
Where are your children at present ?
Woman :
I could not bear the sight of my children writhing under the pains of hunger. So I left them on the door-steps of a rich man and came here to commit suicide.
Yashoda :
What, you went to the tank with the intention to commit suicide.
Woman :
Forgive me, Madam. A mother's heart cannot bear the suffering of her innocent children. I never went to the tank for a bath, I approached there with the avowed purpose to commit suicide. And it is there, that I discovered this precious necklace. I atonce could make
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