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The Magic Bird-Heart
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dove. Somadatta washed it and swallowed. All her wealth also was made over to him. For his part he ceremoniously transferred to Karpurikā the magic charm he was believed to possess. Then he secretly instructed his servants to continue for further five days the got-up show they used to put forth under the Pipal tree consequent upon the so-called magic cock-crow, and himself left for Magadha. For five days Karpūrikā enjoyed the royal service that on crowing appeared as if from nowhere. On the sixth day she wandered under the Pipal crowing and crowing till her throat ached but not a soul turned up. With downcast face she returned to her residence alog with her mother and the maids.
6.1. The tale is narrated by a bawd as a part of instructions to her inexperienced daughter, a top ranking courtesan. Its purpose is to illustrate the cleverness of rogues. The moral is drawn : A discerning courtesan should not fleece the rogues too much, otherwise they would manage to relieve her of all her accumulated earnings. Like many other illustrative tales in the Srgāramañjarë, this one also is obviously borrowed from the storehouse of the then current popular stories.
6.2. We may note the following points from this verston : (1) Two brother start on a travel to foreign lands to try their
luck. (2) Once hungry and exhausted on their way, they spend a night
under a tree in the thick of a forest. There rested on that tree two doves, a male and a female, possessing magical
properties. (3) The male dove has such a properly that whoever eats it be
comes a king. The female dovc's property is that whoever eats it finds five hundred gold coins near his bed every
morning. (4) The merciful doves declare their wonderful properties with
in the hearing of the younger brother and then throw them
selves in fire in self-immolation. (5) The younger brother gives the male bird to the elder brother
to eat and himself eats the female one. He starts finding five hundred gold coins every marning.
