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from the stream which formed a barrier to protect it. They cried out, "A thief !” and imprisoned him closely during the night. They then made him over to the head. policeman, who was their commander, and he, being angry, hung Mitránanda on that very same banyan-tree, so that he died, and as some herdsmen were playing, the ball entered his mouth.'
When King Amaradatta heard of the death of Mitránanda from the hermit, he lamented with a loud voice. Ratnamanjarí also cried. But the great hermit restored King Amaradatta to composure by exhortations tending to renunciation. He said: 'Do not sorrow, king; various is the transmigration of souls produced by works.' Then King Amaradatta said : 'Reverend sir, where has the soul of Mitránanda been again conceived ?' 'The holy man discerned by the might of pure meditation the course of that soul, and said to the king : 'King, the soul of Mitránanda has been conceived in your own family, in your wife Ratnamanjarí, and shall be born as your son, Kamalagupta by name.' Then the king questioned the hermit about the previous life of Mitránanda. He said : ‘Revered sir, what action did the soul of Mitránanda commit in a previous life, that it has suffered so much affliction in this life ?' The holy man said: 'Hear, Oking! In a former age there was in this very land of Bharata, in the city of Sáketa, a householder named Kshemankara. He had a wife named Satyaçrí and a servant named Chandasena, who was skilled in all kinds of work. One day the servant Chandasena was guarding a field. Now, it happened that he saw a pilgrim gathering corn in a field belonging to another man, near the field he was guarding. He cried out: “Masters, this is a thief; hang him on a branch of this tree.” But the proprietor of the field, out of compassion, would not do that. His cruel speech produced great grief in the heart of the pilgrim. Chandasena came home in the evening. That action became attached to his soul. One day when Satyaçrí and her daughter-in-law were eating, a morsel stuck in the throat of the latter. When
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