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126
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
ÇAPRIL, 1890.
3 amba-vadika17 và âlamels va dâna-ga[hê và ê vâpi]lo amnê 4 kichhi ganiyati tâyê dêviyê shê nâni [va] .... 20 5 dutîyayê deviyoti Tivala-matu21 Kaluvakiyê [11]
III. THE KOSAMBI EDICT. .... ye (@papayati Kosambiya maham [A]-ta 2......... ma .. samghas[i] n[a]chi yê
...... [Samgha bhô]khati bhikhu=va bhi(khu]ni=vâ . (pi] châ 4 distâ]ni [d]usani . nam dhậpayitu ana[pê ]sa. :v..y y ....
()
FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
BY PANDIT NATESA SASTRI, M.F.L.S.
No. 32.-THE FOUR GOOD MAXIMS.
Second Variant. In a certain country there lived a famous but poor soothsayer, who had an only son whom he loved very much. Suddenly he fell ill, and thinking that his end was approaching, called his son to his bedside, and, taking out an inscribed palm-leaf from underneath his pillow, thus addressed him :-“My son, do not be vexed with me that I bequeath to you no property. If you take this palm-leaf to some king or other, he will amply reward you." Thus saying the poor old soothsayer died, and his son, not troubling much about his father's words at the time, put the palm-leaf in the thatch and attend ad to the last rites of his departed parent.
After some days had passed, wishing to test his father's statement, he proceeded with the manuscript to a King and, explaining its history, asked for a reward, and the King, who was a very prudent man, promised payment in due time. His objeot, of course, was to test the truth of the four maxims he found in the palm-leaf, before paying for it. They were :
(1) Do not travel without money or jewels in hand to help you in necessity. (2) Do not send your wife for a long while to her parents. (3) Do not seek your sister when you are in misery. (4) Seek always your friend when you are in misery.
The King, in order to test these four maxims, called his minister to his side and, explaining his intention, made over his kingdom to his charge for a time. He then assumed the garb of a poor peasant, but hid in his loin's cloth a diamond ring of very great value to serve him in need, remembering the first maxim of the soothsayer's son.
Now, a long while before this affair he had sent his wife to her parent's house, and desired to follow her there and examine her conduct. To disguise himself, he placed a bundle of fire-wood on his head and appeared in this guise in the streets of the town in which his wife lived. He had not far to walk before he discovered his wife engaged in playing dice with a neighbour
17 It is unnecessary to write "vadiku, bocause the original Sanskrit form vartikd, surrounded by a hedge' (uriti) may become in Prakrit vaffika and vaţika, and further vaddikd or vadika
15 This is probably not a mistake, but a vicarious form for aláme, compare graha and gráha and similar double forms.
19 Among the bracketed letters he is tolerably plain and perfectly certain. Les distinct, but still probable are e vipi, while vi is conjectural.
20 One letter has been lost before the tolerably distinct va, or varn (in case the following dot is not accidental) and three or four after it.
11 The bracketed letters are more or less uncertain.
