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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JUNE, 1898.
render was to accompany his father with a begging bowl, and this he sometimes did. Thus the family had very hard days to struggle with, and at last the pangs of hunger had become go great that the mistress of the family took her lord apart one day and spoke to him thus with her eyes swimming in tears :
"O Kéśava, how long are we to endure this unisery ? Day after day and month after month, I have been most anxiously looking forward for a mitigation of our sufferings. But the great God has not yet been pleased. Surely we must have been the greatest of sinners in our previous births, and we must now try our best to alleviate our hardships by some penance. I will try my best to collect whatever may come in the shape of alms and maintain the children while my lord should go to some unfrequented spot in a remote jangle in the Kollimalai mountains and there propitiate the deity in such a way that our poverty will be removed from as in this birth. We must live above want for at least a few days before we die."
“ Agroed," said Kēšava, and on that very day he started for the Kollimalai mountains. He chose an unfrequented spot. Tigers and bears were howling round about him, but he did not consider them more dangerous than hunger. He sat down, motionless as the stump of a tree, with closed eyes. Birds warbled sweet notes round about him and beasts of prey howled, but he heeded nothing. His whole attention was in the contemplation of God. For months he remained in the same posture. His eyes once closed were never opened. He became absorbed in contemplation, and whether he suffered from hunger or thirst he never knew. Creepers sprouted up round about him, and encircled his neck, and birds built their nests on his hair. Thus passed ten months.
On the first day of the eleventh month a certain person in the garb of a mendicant stood before Késava and asked him to open his eyes. Kéśava obeyed and saw & most holy person standing in the shape of & sanyasin before him. He felt himself to be in the same state of health as when he had sat down for penance, but he knew not how long ago. The mendicant ordered Kêśava to relate his story. “My lord," said Keśava, “I am a pauper with half a dozen children. They are all dying of hunger. Give me enough to feed them on and to live above want. That is all my prayer."
"Undoubtedly, your request will be granted," said the great God, for it was no other than the Almighty himself who had come down in the shape of a sanyasin. Having thus spoken, he placed on Késava's head a bag of rice and ordered him to go home. He then disappeared. Keśava was greatly pleased at the dawn of divine favour on him, and, though weak, he had strength enough for the journey. He was very intelligent, and understood at once that the sanyásin before him was the great God himself.
So Keśava returned home with joy and reached his house at evening. He called aloud to his wife by name, and asked her to help him in taking the bag down from his head. She did so, but when he lifted op his head there was another rice-bag on it! That too was soon brought down. And as soon as it was taken down, there appeared a third bag. A foarth, fifth, sixth, bag appeared in succession, and were taken down, and then the matter grew hopeless. Bags began to appear ad infinitum, and poor Kêśava had no time to be relieved of his burden or to go in to refresh himself. He was thoroughly exhausted, and asked his wife to go in and give him something to eat, while he remained outside with his burdea.
Of course, there was no rice at home, but his wife took & small' quantity from one of the bags, and ground it into floor in a hand-mill. She collected the flour, but, though the whole quantity was collected into a small heap, more still kept lying round the mill! She now divined the secret and cooked what she had already collected into a cake in all haste, and returned to her lord with it and a little water to drink.
Keśava was standing with bot his hands uplifted holding up the bag. So his wife broke a portion of the cake and thrust the bit into his mouth. She also gave him a spoonful of
