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JANA STORIES
into Katha's ears Food was not only offered to the cock, but the cock was addopted as a pet by the merchant.
"One day, King Srenika asked Katha to procure for him one exceptional fabric from Yavanadesa and the merchant agreed to do so But the merchant's wife Bhadra would not let him go Said she 'This means that you will be away from home for a very long time, but I am not prepared to stay without you even for a single day' 'But, my dear,' the merchant tried to argue, 'this work has been assigned by the king himself and I could not decline and disoblige him I shall finish it as soon as I can and come back.'
“As Katha was coming to his shop, he saw a brahmi. with a cage in his hand, and inside the cage, there was a parrot couple The merchant took the eage in his own hand and the couple blessed him at once This created in him an interest about the buds and he bought the whole cage on payment of 500 gold pieces He took the cage to his shop with him The parrots revealed that they were gods under the spell of a curse The merchant felt curlous to know about their past history, and the male parrot gave his account as follows, 'My name is Nandavarta and I belong to the court of Dharanendra Once my master asked me to go down to the earth where he assigned me the duty of worshipping Lord Parsva whose image had been installed at a temple in a forest near Varanası. Happily did I come down to the earth to fulfil my commission'
"Continued the porrot, ‘One day, a holy person endowed with certain powers came to that city. A prince of royal blood, a marchant's son and many nobles were attending on him Now, a cowherd came there and prayed for his favour but to no effect He repeated his request several times, which enraged the man, who, in anger, uttered a few words that made no sense The cowherd took these to be the holy words given to him by the man, memorised
