Kathakoca or Treasury of Stories

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

Page 38

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Behold the strange drama of avarice, Acted by all beings in the three worlds, In which even the beloved of Lakshmi
Actually assumed the disguise of a dwarf.* Crimes have avarice for their root, diseases have humours for their
root; Sorrows have affection for their root: avoid the three, and be happy. Now for an example:
As a man's gains so is his avarice, by gain avarice is increased; The acts performed in two months cannot be expiated in a crore.
In this very land of Bharata, in the village of Kuça
sthala, dwelt a Bráhman, STORY OF THE BRÁhman VASUDEVA.
named Vasudeva; his father died while he was a child. One day he took leave of his mother, and went to the city of Champá to study learning. There he studied with a teacher named Kshírakadamba. He acquired fame among men as a student, and received alms even in the king's palace. Owing to too great intimacy, he formed a connection with a female slave belonging to the palace, and after some days she became pregnant. She said : • Bráhman, when the time comes for me to have a child, how will my lying-in expenses be defrayed ? Without money no affair can be brought to a successful conclusion. Therefore do you devise a means for obtaining money.' He answered: What means can I devise ?' The female slave said: 'In the city of Grípura there is a king of the name of Çrívardhana ; that king gives every morning at daybreak a eouple of máshas of gold to any Bráhman who appears before him for the first time. A couple of máshas of gold will be sufficient to tide me over the troubles of childbirth.' When the Bráhman heard this, he went to the city of Çrípura, and slept at night in a hut belonging to a native of that place. His avarice obscured his reason, and so, thinking in the middle of the night that it was morning, he went so far as to get up at that time to ask
* An allusion to the Vámana incarnation of Vishnu. The god appeared before Bali and asked for as much land as he could step over in three strides. This Bali granted, and Vishnu in two strides deprived him of heaven and earth.