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Tapati and Samvarana
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sinned against. So let me retire to a quiet corner and atone for my sins, as it were. And please do not dog my steps. I shall not be able to attend on you in the midst of my austerities.”
"I can never bring myself to interupt anything that you do. You are my king, and your word is law. I dare not defy it. But I must impress on you one thing. Penance is potentially a very dangerous weapon which, in the hands of kshatriyas, is almost suicidal. So please be careful. I wish the sage Vasishtha were with you at this moment to guide you in your austerities. The Sun is an irascible and unpredictable god and you are a naive novice where asceticism is concerned. But I am not competent to sit in judgment over your decisions. You are a law unto yourself. Forgive me for what I have had to say to you out of my fatherly solicitude for you. May your oblations bear fruit !” The old man prostrated himself before his master and bade him farewell.
Samvarana trekked miles and miles and at last selected a quiet site on the top of a mountain beside a spring. He fainted there out of fatigue. As he lay unconscious, vultures whirled over him, and jackals whined wildly in the distance. But they knew he was alive. And the moment he woke up, they would be the first targets of his fierce, formidable arrows. So they dared not touch him. The flowers showered their petals on him and the fountain sprayed its cool water. But the Sun shone somewhat severely on Samvarana's temples as if to rebuke the royal exile that his enthusiasm for the rigours of an anchorite was childish. After a little while, Samvarana woke up, and saluted the Sun. Then he bathed in the spring, sat on its bank and found himself unable to decide with what prayer he should preface his penance. He discovered that he did not know how
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