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272
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(DECEMBER, 1924
In the morning the lad got up early, and went on till he found a place of safety. There at midnight a huge snake, that was a någa, came to him and asked the same questions as the Raja. In the end the Naga said :-"Will you ask the Sannyasi why all Någas of my age die, but I don't ?" The boy promised to do so.
Next morning he went on, and arrived at a mango tree, where he stopped for the night. When it was dark the tree spoke to him and asked him where he was going. After the Brahman boy had explained his errand, the tree said :-"Kindly ask the Sannyasi why no one eats my fruit ?"
At the end of the fourth day the Brahman lad was again obliged to stop the night in the jangle, when he saw a fire and by it sitting a man and his wife, to whom he explained what had happened to him. The man was a Koli (cultivator) and asked his wife to give a share of her food to the Brahman, as he was giving a third of his own. But she refused, whereon the Koli gave half his own share and also half of his bedding, and so they slept that night. In the morning the Koli had disappeared, and his wife began to abuse the Brahman, as she said her husband must have been taken by wild animals.
And so the Brahman left her and went on and met a Sannyasi, and said to himself 'this must be the sage I am looking for.' So he at once asked him what dharmam meant. Said the Sage :- Go to the city hard by. There will be a son born there to-day to the Raja. Ask him to bring the boy to you, and he will explain the meaning of dharmam."
The Brahman did as he was told, and when the baby was brought to him, all the people from all parts of the city flocked to hear a child just born speak. The Brahman at once asked the child :--"What is the meaning of dharmam ?” Then said the child :
"I am he that gave you half my wheaten bread and half my bed. At midnight I fell out of the hammock and was torn to pieces by wolves. So I was born here to-day as the Raja's son. And even to-day is my wife a pig. Ten pigs have been born to-day in this city: the ninth of them is my wife. This distribution of reward and punishment is dharmam."
Then asked the Brahman :-"Why doesn't the lake dam stand firm ?”
The child replied :-"Because the Raja has two daughters who are marriageable? The dam will stand as soon as they are married."
“Why doesn't the Någa die? "It will die as soon as it gives away the manikam (jewel) in its head." "And why does no one eat the fruit of the mango tree?" .
“There is much money buried at its roots. Every one will eat its fruit as soon as that money is given away."
After this the lad began his homeward journey, and coming to the tree he explained that people would eat its fruit as soon as the money at its roots was given away. Said the tree :-" There is no one so worthy of it as yourself.” So taking the money, he came to the NAga serpent and explained about the menikam (jewel) in its head, and was at once presented with it. Then he came to the Raja and told him about his daughters. Said the Raja :“You are the man to whom I must marry my daughters, as you have saved my lake."
As soon as he was married the Brahman returned home. When his mother saw him, she perceived that it was that half a loaf of wheaten bread that had procured the boy all his riches and his position and caused the Koli to be born again as a Raja's son and his wife a pig in her next life for refusing it. Then they both understood the meaning of dharmam (duty of self-sacrifice).
The moral drawn from this tale for children is that even the poor man can help those poorer than himself,
