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2015. ] Nyāya-Kusumānjali had secured after a great deal of trouble was being snatched away from their bands. One or two of them went out to inform their father. No sooner did their father learn the situation than he became excessively angry and ran after the thieves with a heavy cudgel in his band. He began to assault the thieves without caring in the least for his own life with the result that some were killed on the spot and some took to their heels. Learning this, Dridhaprahari's anger knew no bounds. He started im. mediately to kill the Brahmana. On his way he met a very stout cow and thinking that it wanted to hinder his way, he cut her into two, with a single stroke of his sword. On his approach, the wife of the Brahmana who was pregnant, entreated him to spare her husband. But without heeding her request he killed her and her husband too Thereupon the children that were all the while watching these events began to tremble with fear and to weep aloud. The piteous sight of the fætus struggling on the ground, the dead bodies of the Brahmana, his wife, and the cow and the bitter lamentation of the chiIdren would be sufficient to melt the heart of any individual however hard-hearted he may be This did not fail to produce a feeling of remorse in the heart of Dridha-prahari. He soon began to realize the helpless condition to which the children were reduced and the atrocities he had committed. Now only one thought occupied his mind and that was to find out the means of saving himself from the terrible consequences that were sure to overtake him,
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