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JAINA STORIES kumar could hold no more and enquired about the sourceof such precious gifts which appeared to be divine Atthis, Mehar gave a complete account of the goat This made Abhayakumar all the more curious about the motive of the man, and he asked him flatly about it Mehar was a sharp-witted man and was never to be taken aback He said, 'Sir, we have acquired this divine goat from a god who is friendly to my son, and we get these precious things in profuse quantity from the goat So sir, you can see how lucky my son is If, for such a worthy son, I seek the hand of the princess royal, I hope I shall not be asking for too much, I hope, you see my point and you will readily oblige me
"The proposal was at once rejected by the king What an audacity on the part of this low-born! But Abbayakumar was an intelligent man He picked up the thread. from where it was broken and said, You see, we need more time to consider your request, but before that, we must see this divine goat with our own eyes Besides, I hope, you agree, that such a fare thing should belong to the king
"Mehar agreed and the very next day, the goat was at the palace But this change of habitation also changed the goat and he stopped producing the precious gems But Abhayakumar had no doubt that there was some mystery behind the whole thing and that that must be revealed So he said to Mehar, 'If a god is friendly to your son, let him help us too That will convince us about the great connections of your son' Mehar agreed Continued the Chief Minister, Abhayakumar, 'You see the rampart around this city of Rajagriha Let this rampart be turned into gold, It is also necessary to build a bridge-link between Svarnagiri and Vaibharagini It is further necessary that. water is fetched from the Ganga, the Jamuna, the Saraswati and the Milk Ocean (Ksira-samudra) and sprinkled on your son Get these done as early as you can, and the princess will be his
