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untrue word will not be tenable. Hence I shall kill him." Then thinking that he (i. e. Viradeva) would honour, what he (i. e. Dronaka) would say, [99] he began the plan. He got a mansion built and also a jutty with network of pegs not tight on its upper part. He thought,
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Inviting Viradeva with the purpose of entering the mansion, I shall show him the jutty. Then on account of the beauty of the jutty, he will climb on it at once. Then on the crash of it, he will also at once fall. When it will so happen, the calumny of the people also shall vanish." He arranged as was desired. Before the time of meals, we, both with our people, climbed the mansion. In the meantime, his mind got nervous. In order to see me, he himself climbed alone on the jutty. No sooner did I climb than he had fallen; and while I descended shouting 'Alas, alas !', Dronaka was found dead. Dejection took place in my mind. I thought, "Fie upon this world of living beings; the acts of the worldly existence end in such results! Then I, having done his funeral ceremony, due to the dejection caused by his death, took the emblems of a friar in the presence of preceptor Manabhanga. Completing my life, I was born a god with the age of a little less than twenty-five sigaropamas in the lower and upper Graiveyaka heaven; while the other, Dronaka, under the tainted meditation, was born a hell-dweller, with the age of twelve ságaropamas in the hell-world Dhumaprabha. Then, having enjoyed the celestial life, [100] I, on fall therefrom, was born as a son of merchant Manibhadra in the womb of his wife Harini in the city of Campávása in the country of Vijaya here in the continent of Jambudvipa. I took birth at the proper
