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At the age of 5 of 7 years or at the age of 12 years) the prince enquired of his mother about his father and on learning the fact from her he took the vow of celebacy and bore matted hair on his head along with 500 boys of the warrior clan.
Meanwhile the king expired and he was erthroned after great persistence. The minister, however, avoided seeing his face by sitting behind a curtain.
Now at the age of 32 the king was fascinated by a nice song sung by a maiden of the Mälanga class. Both exchanged gesticulations indicative of the rendezvous. The minister missioned a man to observe secretly what happened between them. The girl conversed with the king and great joy prevailed. Feeling ashamed of having been observed by the spy in that horripilated condition, the king became ready to burn himself alive. The minister got prepared a red-hot iron-doll of the dimensions of a virgin of 16 years, which the king was about to embrace when, all of a sudden, he was caught by the minister who then saw his face for the first time.
In course of time this king Ratnapuñja arrived once at Srimala pura, where, while going to the park for spring-sports, he beheld coming in front of him a pregnant lady carrying in her hands an unbroken cocoanut. fruit (or unbroken rice grains and a cocoanut-fruit) upon which was sitting a spotted owlet making an indistinct sound. An astrologer from the Maruland explained the significance of the omen thus:
us.
“The next morning the woman will deliver a son who will become the king of the country.”
She was forthwith caught by police-inen at the king's command and was taken to a forest for being burried alive, where, out of terror, slie delivered a son whom she placed among the young ones of a doe, whereafter she was burried in the ground.
The doe allowed the human babe to suck her breasts as did her own offsprings. The mint started striking new coins with the impression of a deer. This automatic change in the currency-dye was reported to the king, who questioned the police-men. The latter showed to the former the exact place where the woman was burried. The child also was seen there with milk dropping down in his mouth from the roots shooting forth from the branches of a fig-tree on the bank of a lake.
Thereafter the child was left across the city-gates but was covered over by the chief royal elephant, was protected by the chief royal steed, by the cows and even by the bull.
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