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MADAN AND DHANADEVA
97
pati. His wife's name was Laksmi. They had two sons, Dhapasara and Dhapadeva The merchant educated the sons and married them with two beautiful girl. After the father bad died, the two brothers happily lived on in a joint family. But the two wives were not on very good terms When matters reached an extreme, the two brothers agreed to the partition of property amicably But even this did not solve the problem. Dhapadeva was entirely dissatisfied with bis wife. She did not give him a moment's peace Under this situation, he accepted a suggestion of his elder brother and got married with another lady Now, the first wife thought of teaching her husband a good lesson. She became very intimate with her co-wive and changed her to her own ways of life So, Dhanadeva's peace was very short-lived and he became unhappy again.
"When a man is troubled too much by another, he tries to hit upon some loopholes 10 him so that he can pay him back in his own coins One day, Dhanadeva pretended to be unwell and lay down Soon he began to spore loudly The two wives were pretty certain that he was fast asleep Both of them now got ready to go out and took their seats on a mango tree. When Dhanadeva came to know of their intention, he took shelter in the hollow of the tree unnoticed The tree carried the party to Ratnapur in the Ratna island There they began to move in a very familiar way Dhanadeva followed them unnoticed.
"Now, in that city, there was a merchant named Sripunja. He had four sons, followed by a daughter who was named Srimati The girl was to be married on that very day Now, as the groom stood under the gateway constructed for the occasion, it suddenly collapsed and he died This was a great calamity If the girl was now to remain unmarried, it would be difficult to marry her again Sripuoja was in a great dilemma He sent at once some of his trusted men to the four corners of the city to see if some suitable groom could be found with whom he could settle the girl in marriage One of these men saw Dhanadeva, and at once he took a fancy for him Dhanadeva was young and beautiful He was brought before Sripuoja who at once J-7
