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Life and Stories of Pārçvanātha
externally kind, appointed Vanarāja provincial commander. His adopted father, Keçava, sent him great wealth (672). It happened that the king sent his own son, Prince Narasinha, to suppress a rebellious vassal, but Narasinha was defeated. Then he sent Vanarāja, who was victorious, and became famous in the world. Since the king had hoped that Vanarāja might perish, he became surly and sent camel drivers (auṣṭrika) with a letter to Narasinha, commanding him to poison Vanarāja (vanarājasya dātavyam vişam). The camel drivers stopped overnight in the temple of the Yakṣa Sundara, who changed the message so as to read: Kamalā is to be given to Vanarāja (kamalā vānarājasya dātavyā).3 Thereupon Narasinha gave his sister, the Princess Kamalā, with great ceremony, as wife to Vanarāja. The latter, along with his bride and Narasinha, returned to the city. The king, tho rejoicing at the defeat of the rebellious vassal, was grieved over Vanarāja's marriage, and his unshakable prosperity. Tho again baffled, he once more plotted his destruction (709).
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He called two Matangas of his, and told them secretly to slay any one who might come by night to worship the divinity at the door of the palace. He then told Vanarāja that he had promised to worship that divinity at the time Vanarāja had gone forth against the rebellious vassal,
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"In the parallel, Kathakoça, p. 172, the alteration is, much better, from visam to visa. Possibly the Parçva version is a blend of two forms in one of which the alteration is from kamalam in the sense of drug' to Kamalā. As the trick stands here, it is rather foolish. Cf. Indian Antiquary x. 190; xi. 84. The presence or absence in a word of the small anusvåra dot changes Prakrit adhiyau 'he shall study,' to amdhiyau, 'he must be blinded,' in the tragic story of Kuṇāla as told in Pariçistaparvan 9. 14 ff.; cf. Divyavadana, pp. 417 ff. Further instances of the Uriah letter in Parker, Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, vol. i, pp. 193, 195, 275, 276, 389; vol. iii, pp. 73, 76, 291, 294.
