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NandiSootra
Next day when Vararuchi recited his PRAISE in honour of the king, Shaktal recalled his wife's words and uttered involuntarily - "Good!" As if the king was waiting for this, he at once ordered for a reward of 108 gold coins to Vararuchi. This day Vararuchi returned to his house happy.
After Vararuchi left, Shaktal told the king "Sir! You gave him gold coins for nothing. This man plagiarizes from old texts to recite inyour praise." The king asked with surprise - "Do you have any proof of this?" Shaktal at once said - "The verses he recites are the same as I hear my daughters recite every morning. If you so desire, I can prove this tomorrow in the assembly." The king granted permission - "All right, call them to the assembly tomorrow."
Next morning Shaktal took all his seven daughters to the assembly. As usual, Vararuchi came and recited his new PRAISE. As soon as the recital concluded Shaktal gestured at his eldest daughter, Yaksha. She got up, stepped forward and repeated Vararuchi's poem verbatim. Now Shaktal gestured at his second daughter. By now she had listened to the poetry twice and memorized. She also stepped ahead and repeated the poem. This way, one after the other, all the seven daughters of Shaktal repeated Vararuchi's poetry. The king now believed what Shaktal had told him. He got angry and told Vararuchi never to come to the assembly again.
Vararuchi could well understand that this was Shaktal's conspiracy. He resolved to take revenge from Shaktal. He cleverly fixed a wooden plank on the banks of the Ganges in such a way that its one end was submerged in water and the other was on the shore. If a little pressure was applied on a specific spot on the plank the submerged portion rose to the surface of water. He placed a bag full of gold coins on the submerged portion and sitting on the other end started singing hymns for goddess Ganga. When the hymns concluded he bowed down to pay homage to the goddess and furtively pressed the plank. At once the other end surfaced with the bag full of gold coins. People standing around saw all this and looked at Vararuchi in surprise. Vararuchi commented "What if the king does not reward me, mother Ganges does so."
The news spread in the town like wild fire. When the king came to know of thisastonishing incident he called and asked Shaktal about it. Shaktal said "It is better to see with one's own eyes before believing in hearsay. If you permit, come morning we may go and witness the miracle ourselves."
After giving this advice to the king, Shaktal returned to his residence and called one of his spies. He gave him instructions to goto the river bank in the evening and hides himself. Vararuchi will come to place the bag full of gold coins in the river. When Vararuchi returns back after doing so he should stealthily enter the river, pick up the bag, and bring it to Shaktal. The spy followed these instructions and brought Vararuchi's bag to Shaktal late in the night.
In the morning Vararuchi proceeded as usual, but when he pressed the plank it surfaced without the bag of coins. Vararuchi looked around in surprise. Now Shaktal, who was standing there with the king, taunted - "Learned Pundit? The bag you hid in the river during the night has reached me."Vararuchi felt ashamed when he was exposed before this large crowd. He at once left, but his anger and animosity for Shaktal increased. He resolved to destroy Shaktal. A few days later he made his disciples memorize a verse and asked them to spread it around the town. It read - "People don't know what Shaktal is going to do. He will kill king Nand and put his son Shreyak on the throne."
Aagam- 44 -NandiSootra
Compiled by- Deepratnasagar
~91~
