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86 Life and Stories of Pārçvanātha that the punishment for intercourse with the wife of another is cutting off of one's head in hell, and infamy like that of Indra, because he violated Ahalyā, the wife of Gāutama.21 He therefore managed to conserve his chastity (405). Again, he was attacked by the desire to gamble, but checked himself by realizing that gambling is the chief of passions, and that King Nala and others were by it plunged into misfortune. Thus his discernment overcame his third temptation (410). One day Sumati asked the king why he showed such implicit trust in him, tho it was not the habit of kings to be confiding. The king replied that there was no reason for distrust, because he, Sumati, came from the Purohitas of the royal family. Then Sumati again asked why he had been chosen while yet so young, and the king answered that he had desired to test the unfolding of his discernment. This he supported by the familiar punning allusion to the uselessness of a 'strong how without string '-'good family without virtue.' 22 The king then told him the story of his life, which he listened to with downcast face. In the end Sumati entered upon the path of virtue (325419).
Story of Prabhākara and his king, wife, and friend * The sage then turns to the third worldly virtue (lāukika guņa), namely, keeping goud company (susamga, or susamsarga). By contact with a touchstone, brass becomes gold; by contact with gold, glass becomes a jewel.23
* From Çatapatha Brahmana 3. 3. 4. 18 on to Kathåsaritsägara 17. 137 ff. See my Vedic Concordance, under a halyāyāi. For lechery of the gods see Vasavadatta (Gray's translation, p. 130, with note); Dacakumăracarita i, p. 44; B8htlingk, Indische Sprtiche, nr. 2170.
*savarco 'pi dhanurdando nirgunah kim karisyati; see Böhtlingk, Indische Sprüche, nr. 5369.
* Cf. Běhtlingk, ibid., 1618.
