Kathakoca or Treasury of Stories

Author(s): C H Tawney
Publisher: Oriental Books Reprint Corporation New Delhi

Page 35

the two brothers went to a foreign land in order to acquire wealth. They wandered from country to country, from village to village, and from city to city, and at last reached the town of Jayapura. In it there dwelt a king of the name of Arikeçarin, who had a daughter named Madanávalí. That princess went through a form of penance, named “the kindler of prosperity," and was at that very time concluding the penance. She had a proclamation made in the city by beat of drum, to the effect that two Bráhmans, who had never appeared there before, * young and handsome, and observing the vow of chastity, were to be summoned. Accordingly these two were summoned. She filled two golden vessels with wealth, jewels, and gold, and piled up on the top pastry, sweetmeats, and sugar, and gave them to the two Bráhmans. The two Bráhmans took the two urns and went to the river and feasted. They consulted together, and buried the wealth in that very place in a hole in the bank, and went to another country to earn more wealth. As they were going along, the heart of the elder brother changed for the worse. In a forest near Kauçámbí the elder brother sent his brother to look into a blind well. He said to him : “Brother, just see if there is water in this well, and come back, I am very thirsty;" and while the younger brother was looking to see if there was water in the well, his elder brother Devaçarman threw him into the well. As he was falling, he caught hold of the hem of the elder brother's garment, and so they both fell in and perished. After death they were born again as serpents. In the third birth they were born as mice. In their fourth birth they were born as deer, and killed by a hunter. In their fifth birth they were born as the sons of the Bráhman Mádhava, in the city of Kauçámbí, by his wife Vásanti, and were named Rudra and Maheçvara. One day the two went to the field to milk. They fell to quarrelling when they came over the place where the treasure had been buried, but were made to desist by the householders who were near them, and re
* Compare the story of Vasudeva.