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sented to allow her to attend on him, as an exceptional case. Then Mágadhiká attended on him. For some days she treated him with medicines and things of the kind. Then the hermit attained & healthy condition of body. Thereupon one day that Mágadhiká, displaying all her charms, having adorned her body with all her ornaments, with an arch smile spoke thus to the hermit: 'What is the use of this difficult penance ? Cultivate me, the only auspicious treasury of happiness; abandon the seal of your Vow; leave the forest; repair to the city. When Kúlaválaka heard such words from her, he abandoned the virtue of self-control, and gave up his vow. Then Mágadhiká returned with him, delighted in her mind, to King Koņika. She said to him : 'King, this is my lover, a hermit of the name of Kúlaválaka; let whatever you wish to have done by him be done. The king said to Kúlaválaka : Greatsouled one, think of some stratagem for taking the city of Vaiçálí.' The great-souled one accepted the commission. He assumed the dress of a wandering mendicant, that carries three bamboo staves, and entered the city. He saw the stúpa of the holy hermit, the lord Suvrata, in the middle of the city, and he said to himself, Surely it is due to the power of this stúpa that the city is not taken ;* so I will take steps to make the people dig it up.' The people said to him: 'Ho, wandering mendicant, will the siege of the city ever cease ?' The hermit said: 'If you dig up this stúpa, the siege will cease, and if not, it will not cease.' Then he went into the besieging army, and made this arrangement with King Koņika, that when the people removed the stúpa, he was to march away with his army. The king agreed to it. The hermit again entered the city. The people said to him: 'Wandering mendicant, what assurance have we in this matter ?' He answered : While the stúpa is being dug up, the besieging army will march away; this is the assurance. The people began to dig up the stúpa. As fast as they tore it up, the army retired.
* Compare Jacobi's introduction to his edition of the Pariçishta Parvan,' p. 58.
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