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Then the Jina explained to King Kuruchandra that all five of them united in a previous birth in giving a gift to a hermit. 'For this reason,' said the hermit, 'five splendid things come to you every day as a gift. For this reason you cannot enjoy these five things unless you have given them to these people.'* When they had heard their former life thus described by the holy Çantinátha, recollection of it arose in all, and they remembered it perfectly. The king, after bowing before the Jina, took Vasantadeva and Kámapála and their wives to his own palace, and treated those two men as his brothers. With their help he ruled his kingdom. After he bad cherished his realm for some time, he placed his son on the throne, and then all five took a vow. All five observed the conduct prescribed by their vow free from transgression, and went to heaven.
Thus ends the story of King Kuruchandra, having reference to a gift in common.
He who gives a gift to holy men, who are treasures of virtue, Whose bodies are restrained with purity and penance, obtains happi.
ness and is rich.
In this very land of Bharata there is a city named STORY OF THE FORTUNATE YOUTH DHANYA. Supratishtha ; in it
there was a king named Jitaçatru. Once on a time, a family that had formerly been rich, and had afterwards by the dispensation of fate become poor, left another city through shame, and settled in the city of Supratishtha. The family was naturally well conducted, and a young son of it, who was devoted to giving, used to graze the calves of the citizens. One day there was a great festival in that city, and all the people went to the city garden, taking with them various kinds of eatables. That grazer of cattle, seeing what the citizens were about, felt a great desire to join in the festival. So he left the calves in the neighbourhood of the town and came home, and said to his mother: 'Mother, make preparations
* There is clearly some important omission either here or at the beginning of the story. As it stands it is unintelligible.
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