Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 13
Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

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Page 298
________________ 262 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. (SEPTEMBER, 1884. The king agreed ; and Gangadhara left the city the same way these Ganas of Ganapati first that very day on his way home. ate a portion of the corpse, and when they found It so happened that unwittingly he took a it sweet, for we know that it was crammed up wrong road, and had to pass near a sea coast. with the sweetmeats of the kind rats, devonred His elder brother was also un his way up to the whole, and were consulting about offering Banaras by that very same route. They met the best excuse possible to their master. and recognised each other, even at a distance. The elder brother, after finishing the prijá, They flew into each other's arms. Both re- demanded from the god his brother's corpse. mained still for a time without knowing The belly-god called his Gañas, who came to the anything. The emotion of pleasure (ananda) front blinking, and fearing the anger of their was so great, especially in Gangadhara, that master. The god was greatly enraged. The it proved dangerous to his life. In a word, he elder brother was highly vexed. When the died of joy. corpse was not forthcoming he cuttingly The sorrow of the elder brother could better remarked, “Is this, after all, the return for be imagined than described. He saw again his my deep belief in you? You are unable even lost brother, after having given up, as it were, to return my brother's corpse.". Ganêśa was all hopes of meeting him. He had not even much ashamed at the remark, and at the asked him his adventures. That he should be uneasiness that he had caused to his worshipper, snatched away by the cruel hand of death so he by his divine power gave him & living seemed unbearable to him. He wept and Gangadhara instead of the dead corpse. Thus wailed, took the corpse on his lap, sat under was the second son of the Soothsayer restored a tree, and wetted it with tears. But there to life. was no hope of his dead brother coming to The brothers had a long talk about each life again. other's adventures. They both went to Ujjaini, The elder brother was a devout worshipper where Gangadhara married the princess, and of Ganapati. That was a Friday, a day very succeeded to the throne of that kingdom. He sacred to that god. The elder brother took reigned for a long time, conferring several the corpse to the nearest Ganesa temple benefits upon his brother. How is the horoscope and called upon him. The god came, and to be interpreted? A special synod of Soothasked him what he wanted. "My poor bro- sayers was held. A thousand emendations ther is dead and gone; and this is his were suggested. Gangadhara would not accept corpse. Kindly keep it under your charge till them. At last one Soothsayer cut the knot by I finish your worship. If I leave it anywhere stopping at a different place in reading," saelse the devils may snatch it away when I am mudra tirá maranam leiñchit." "On the sea shore absent in your worship; after finishing your death for some time. Then bhogam Bhavishyati. pújá I shall burn him." Thus said the elder There shall be happiness for the person conbrother, and giving the corpse to the god cerned." Thus the passage was interpreted. Gaņēsa he went to prepare himself for that “Yes; my father's words never went wrong," said deity's worship. Gandia made over the corpse Gangadhara. The three brute kings continued to his Ganas, asking them to watch over it their visits often to the Soothsayer's son, the carefully. then king of Ujjaini. Even the faithless goldSo receives a spoiled child a fruit from its smith became a frequent visitor at the palace, father, who, when he gives it the fruit asks the and a receiver of several benefits from the child to keep it safe. The child thinks within royal hands. itself, “Papa will excuse me if I eat a portion IV.-RANAVIRASING. of it." So saying it eats a portion, and when Once upon a time in the town of Vanjaimait finds it so sweet, it eats the whole, saying, nagar, there ruled a king, named Sivachâr. “Come what will, what will papa do, after all, He was a most just king, and ruled so well if I eat it? Perhaps give me a stroke or two on that no stone thrown up fell down, no crow the back. Perhaps he may excuse me." In ' pecked at the new drawn milk, the lion and Classical name of Karar, a small but very ancient town in the Köyambatär District of the Madras Presidency.

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