________________
224
Shri Jaina Conference Herald.
a town, because they feared its king. But there again they were forced to abandon their carriages and to run away, as they were assaulted ( by robbers ). Only two almost helpless men, one blind and the other lame, were left behind. Now a forest conflagration arose from the camp fires. Both the men were terror-strick. The blind man, overwhelmed with fear. took his flight towards the flames. The lame man said:
Blind man, do not try to escape this way: 'In this very spot are the flames.' The blind man replied: ' But where shall I go ?' The lame man said: 'I am lame, but I am able to show you the way. Raise me therefore, on your shoulders, in order that I may lead you safely to the town by causing you to escape serpents thorns, fire and other perils. The blind man a sented, saying: ' Let it be so !', and did, as the lame man had told him. And in this manner both of them reached the town without any accident.'
I do not remember to have read this story in any other Indian book, though probably this is not its only accurrence in the Indian literature. But it has become quite a popular story in Germany through the well-known Saxon poet Chri: stian Furchtegott Gellert ( 1715-1769 A. D. ), who amongst other fables and stories I has this self-same parable. On page xli, he gives as his source. the fable of an unknown poet'cited by Breitinger on p 232 of his ' Critical Trentise 02 Poetics. ' I leave it over to connoisseurs of the narrative literatures of Europe to make out the way by which this parable came to this unknowo poet; but most probably this way, when discovered will lead back to India, where the Holy scriptures of the Jainas contained our story as early as more than 2000 years ago..
This is by no means an insolted fact. You know that the old Hinduistic version of the Pancatantra ( called Tantrakhayayika). and several Bauddha works were translated from the original Sanskrit into the languages of several surrounding nations, and that by means of reiterated translations,
1 See C. F. Gellerts guemmtliche Schriften, Carlsruhe 1774, vol. i, p 35.
