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JAINA STORIES
So saying, she displayed her long bloody tongue, and with an unsheathed sword in her hand, she trampled Dhista beneath her heels and said,
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"Confess, ye fool, whither bound you were on horseback? These are your last moments on the earth. Remember your creator
""
For a moment, Dhista felt nervous, but soon he gathered courage and said,
"Old devil' 'But tell me first who did cut thy nose ?" The question pleased the lady who released him at once and said,
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"Lucky man! Let me give you an account. In the land of Bharata, there is a city named Manorama where reigned King Manorath. His queen Manımala gave birth to seven sons and one daughter I am that daughter When I reached the threshold of youth, I developed a test for spells and enchantments and soon mastered all the arts leading to hypnotism, mesmorism, slaughter, maddening, demon-arts, moving to heaven, hiding in the nether world, attracting planets, etc I also acquired the art of making alive a corpse With these special powers, I reached one day the court of Indra, the king of gods, where I met many heavenly stage-players, and learnt from them the art of dramatics This soon brought me a chance to dance at Indra's court and I pleased him by my performance. When he desired me to ask for a boon, what else could I ask for but seek Indra as my husband? And to this he kindly agreed Henceforth I became a regular visitor to heaven and had a very nice time there"
The lady further continued her account :
life at times One day, my
"You do not know, my dear fellow, how takes a major turn without giving any notice gardener, whom I favoured, desired to go to heaven with me and see the stage performance there with his own eyes I couldn't disoblige him I turned him into a black bee who stuck at my petticoat, and with him thus I reached heaven The performance started and I was on the stage,
