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for earning a livelihood. The complete introduction to Go laka's life history is available in c rya Gu acandra's ‘Mah v ra Cariyam', which is presented briefly:
In Silindha, province of Uttar patha there lived a village headman named Ke ava. His wife was iv . They had a son whom they named Mamkha. When Mamkha grew up, he went one day with his father to the lake for a bath. There he saw a pair of geese indulging in loveplay. At that time, a hunter stuck an arrow into the female goose, which started fluttering in pain. Seeing her suffer, out of sorrow, the male goose gave up his life. Seeing the plight of the goose pair, Mamkha fell unconscious on the ground. Ke ava was worried seeing his son. When Mamkha regained consciousness, Ke ava asked him the reason for his fainting. Mamkha told him of the incident and said seeing the geese he was reminded of his past life, where he was killed with his partner goose and have now been born to him.
Ke ava brought Mamkha home, reassuring him, yet even at home that Mamkha was always in thoughts. He was treated with many remedies; even many t mtrikas were called, but all was in vain. One day an elderly person suggested that a painting depicting his past life story of the geese shown to him. Let Mamkha take the painting around and show it to people. Perhaps doing so someone would remember the past life and he might get his wife of the past life and attain peace. Ke ava did as told and Mamkha started wandering with that painting.
People would see that painting and sometimes ask him about it, and he would narrate the whole account. Wandering this way, Mamkha reached Camp city. His journey was over and he had no means to sustain himself, so he made that painting his means of sustenance and singing songs, started seeking alms.
An extraordinarily lazy man named Mamkhal lived in the same city. He was always looking for a convenient way to sustain himself. One day, he met Mamkha; he got hold of him, and started serving him, learnt some songs from him. Later on when Mamkha died, he took all his details, and prepared the same kind of painting and went to his house. He took his wife along as well and like Mamkha, started making a living showing the painting around. Wherever he went people would follow him, shouting,
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