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VII.
nate, O Lakshmi ? Why should you be so very
VI. obstinate, O Lakshmi.
That low caste Chenchita woman you have IV.
made my co-wife, my lord! You have made O Divine-souled! Why should I be obsti- | my co-wife, my lord! nate towards you? You had better not be anxious to enter into my room, my lord ! you If yon will open the door soon I will give had better not be anxious to enter into my you this necklace, O Lakshmi! I will give room, my lord !
you this necklace, O Lakshmi ! V.
VIII. About the Chenchita woman, why should You may give the necklace to the Chenchita you be so very particular, O Lakshmi ? Why woman, and live with her, my lord! And live should you be so very particular, O Lakshmi ? with her, my lord !
FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
BY PANDIT NATESA SASTRI, M.F.L.S. XXVI.-The Conquest of Fate. sweet voice the hoary lord of the cottage of In the Dakshinadésa there lived a Brahman | leaves. boy who from his childhood was given a very "A thirst for knowledge, so that I may liberal education in Sanskrit. He had read so acquire the mastery over the higher branches much in philosophy that before he reached the of philosophy," was the reply of our young sixteenth year of his life he began to despise adventurer, whose name was Subrahmanya. the pleasures of the world. Everything which "Sit down my child," said the old sage, much he saw was an illusion (mithya) to him. So he pleased that in this Kaliyuga, which is one resolved to renounce the world and to go to & long epoch of sin, there was at least one young forest, there to meet with some great sage, and lad who had forsaken his home for philosophy. pass his days with him in peace and happiness, Having thus seen our hero safely relieved
Having thus made up his mind, he left his from falling a prey to the tigers and lions of home one day without the knowledge of his the Dandakâranya, let us enquire into the parents and travelled towards the Daņda- story of the old sage. In the good old days káranya. After wandering for a long time in even of this Kaliyuga learned people, after that impenetrable forest, and undergoing all fully enjoying the world, retired to the forests, the miseries of a wood inhabited only by wild with or without their wives, to pass the decline beasts, he reached the banks of the Tunga- of life in solemn solitude and contemplabhadrâ. His sufferings in his wanderings in a tion. When they went with their wives they forest introdden by human feet, his loneliness were said to undergo the ránaprastha stage in the midst of wild beasts, his fears whether of family life. The hoary sage of our story after all he had not failed in his search for was undergoing vanaprastha, for he was in the consolation in a preceptor to teach him the woods with his wife. His name while living higher branches of philosophy, came up one was Jaananidhi. He had built a neat par. after another before his mind. Dejected and nasálá, or cottage of leaves, on the banks of the weary, he cast bis glance forward as far as it commingled waters of the Tanga and Bhadra, could reach. Was it a reality or only imagina- and here his days and nights were spent in tion? He saw before him a lonely cottage of meditation. Though old in years he retained leaves (parnasála). To a lonely traveller even the full vigoar of manhood, the result of a the appearance of shelter is welcome, so he well-spent youth. The life of his later years followed up his vision till it became a reality, was most simple and sinless. and an aged hoary Brahman, full fourscore "Remote from man, with God he passed and more in years, welcomed our young philo
his days; sopher.
Prayer all his basiness, all his pleasures " What has brought you here, my child, to
praise." this lonely forest thus alone ?" spoke in & The wood yielded him herbs, fruits and
