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prince, because, though he was cruel, he was his younger brother. Then, having recovered his kingdom, Nala, together with Davadantí, worshipped eagerly at all the sacred shrines in Ayodhya. The kings offered various presents, and bowed before the lotus of his foot, and Nala held the sovereignty of half India for many thousands of years. One day the god Nishada came from heaven, and said to Nala, who was full of projects for engaging in the pleasures of the world: 'You are not a man, since you do not defend your treasure of discernment, which is being pillaged by such robbers as passion and its crew. I promised you long ago that I would tell you the time to become a hermit; so now adopt self-restraint.' When the god had said this, he went to his own place. At this moment a religious teacher, named Jinabhadra, who possessed supernatural knowledge, arrived there. Then Nala went to worship him with Davadantí. When the king had worshipped him, and heard the religious instruction he had to give, he asked: 'Reverend sir, what good deed did we two perform in a former life that we acquired such a splendid sovereignty, and, after losing it, recovered it again ?' The sage said: 'In this very Jambudvipa, in the land of Bharata, near the mountain Ashṭápada, there is a city named Sangara. In it there was a king named Mammana, and he had a wife named Víramatí. One day the king, having gone out to hunt, saw a hermit coming with a caravan. He thought that the hermit would impede his hunting, and was an evil omen to him; so he took him out of the caravan, and, making him turn back, brought him to his palace. They mocked the hermit for twelve hours; then the two asked him these questions: "Whence do you come, and where are you going?" The hermit said: "I have come from Rohitapura with a caravan, to worship the images of the Jinas on the Ashṭápada mountain." When they heard this speech of the hermit, their anger melted away. Then the hermit, knowing their good disposition, preached to them religion, the principal characteristic of which is mercy to all living things. Then they made some progress in
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