________________
118
JAINA STORIES 2 bermitage, The hermit was highly pleased to see a bright young man in his compound with distinct marks on bis body that sigoified a bright future for him as a kiog. He liad a daughter named Rupavatı for whom, he felt, the stranger-lad would make a dice groom So he made the proposal and the prince readily agreed. At the marriage ritual, the hermit bestowed on the prince a magic blanket yielding one hundred coios per day and a flying cot The prince now sat on the cot with his new bride and directed it to carry him where Dhanavati was. The cot descended in the central park of Kusumpur.
Life is an arena of unions and separations At a moment of the greatest expectation creeps in the greatest despair When the two had alighted in the park, the lady felt thirsty, and the prince went to the well to fetch water. As he threw the bucket inside, he heard a human voice saying,
"Please take me out."
The prince looked in and saw a snake At once, he hurled his wrapper in and the next moment the snake was crawling on the ground The first thing it did was to pin a sting on its benefactor This was a grear set-back for the prince who said,
“Oh king of the snakes! That is a nice gesture of gratitude you have made !"
"Mind it not, sir, I shall help you in difficulty." So saying, he disappeared
The prince, however, did not die of the venom; but he turned into a hunchback.
As Rupavatı saw a hunchback approach her with water, she refused to accept it, nor would she recognise the man as her husband. She took him to be a rogue come to deceive her So she did not even look at him and started a search for her missing husband But as she could fod him nowhere, she too took the way to the yaksa temple and started her penance.
Soon it became the talk of the town that three ladies were simultaneously propitiating the deity and would talk with none The news reached the king's ears He himself came to
