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King Hariscandra's courageous endurance
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king and minister. Prabhākara lived happily in the possession of a noble lord, a good wife, and a faithful friend (420-555).
Story of King Hariçcandra's courageous endurance 32
The text turns to the exposition and praise of the last of the four worldly virtues (lāukikā guņāḥ), namely sattva, or courageous endurance,' ending with the following illustration: King Hariçcandra, of Ikşvāku descent, ruled in Ayodhyā. One night he heard a bard recite a çloka in praise of sattva ; 33 this the king, much impressed with its meaning, memorized. In the morning a disturbance arose, because a boar was rampant in the Çakrāvatāra forest, tearing down trees and creepers, and endangering the peace of the ascetics living therein. The king rode into the forest, was told by his two companions, Kapiñjala and Kuntala, where the boar was, and, in due course, brought him down (585). The king, curious to know how much injury he had done to his unstable target, sent Kapiñjala to see. Kapiñjala, on his return, bade the king go and see for himself. The king found the victim covered with blood • like a burning forest-fire,' so that he suspected him to be of divine origin. Kapiñjala, who knew the truth, tried to keep the king from closely investigating, but the king persisted, and found the victim
* This story is a skilful fictional rifacimento of an epic narrative, told in Märkandeya Purāna 7. It is dramatized in Ksemendra's, or Ksemicvara's play Candakāusika, edited by Jayanmohana Çarman (Calcutta 1867), translated by L. Fritze, under the title 'Kauçika's Zorn,' Leipzig, Reclam's Universalbibliothek, No. 1726 (cf. Pischel, Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen, 1883, p. 1217). Echoes of the same story may be found in Chavannes, Cing Cent Contes et Apologues Chinois, nrs. 6 and 13, and in Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales, pp. 224 ff. On the character of the Epic story see Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts i', pp. 379 ff.
* Cf. Böhtlingk, Indische Sprüche, nrs. 6147-9.
