________________
10
the messenger and there occurred a sudden break in the revelry. Prince Triprisṭha Kumāra became greatly enraged at the rude behaviour of the Prati-Vasudeva's messenger and having dealt him blows with his fists, feet, and stick, he took back all the valuable presents received from king Prajapati. Now Prati-Vāsudèva Asvagriva became very angry on hearing about the insult to his messenger and he realised that the first part of the foretelling of the astrolger-that the man who would insult his messenger Candavèga will cause his death-may turn out to be true. So, he at once sent another messenger to Prajapati and ordered him to go immediately to rice-fields, and to give protection to his cultivators against the ravages of the lion lurking there. King Prajapati became ready to go there, but both his princes viz Acala Kumara and Triprisṭha Kumāra vehemently implored him not to undergo the risk on account of his old age, and they went there with men and materials, against his wish. When nearing the den of the lion, Tripriṣṭha Kumāra left his men and materials at a distance, and he went on foot to the den, without carrying any weapon, and unaccompanied by his own brother and unassisted by any of his numerous soldiers, as he thought it contrary to all rules of justice for hunters to take with them a clever party of numerous well-selected persons fully equipped with various destructive weapons, on horse-backs or some such vehicles, for attacking a single, solitary tiger or lion, posting themselves on high platforms erected on tall trees or protruding rocks on mountain-peaks. Standing fearlessly just near the entrance of the den, Triprisṭha Kumāra repeatedly coaxed the lion for a duel fight with himself, and, as soon as the lion jumped on him, Triprisṭha Kumāra, at once caught hold of the lion's upper jaw and tightly grasping his lower jaw into his left hand, he readily cut the lion into two vertical pieces. When the lion died, the cultivators were greatly pleased with the bravery of the prince. On his return towards Potanapura, Tripristha Kumāra instructed the cultivators to give the lion's skin to Prati-Vasudèva Asvagriva, and to inform him that as the lion was now dead, his rice-fields will, for the present, be free from danger.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
