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118.THE YAKŞA AND THE PAINTER
The Yaksa Surapriya by name had a temple built for himself in a park on the north eastern side of the town of Sāketa. Every year the town held a festival in his honour when his picture was freshly painted. But the peculiar thing was that the Yaksa caught hold of the painter who did his portrait and killed him, and if no portrait was painted, he would punish the whole town by sending a terrible epidemic. Most of the professional painters in Säketa therefore resorted to a simple way out. They started leaving the town. When the king came to know the exodus of the painters, he was afraid that the Yaksa would hold him responsible for the neglect of the annual festival and of the making of a fresh portrait and not hesitate to kill him himself. He therefore made a list of all the painters in the town and worked out a plan by which every year the name of the painter who was supposed to do the portrait would be decided. He got an earthen jar in which the cards bearing the names of all the painters were kept. Around the time of the festival one card would be picked up and the artist whose name the card bore would accept the fatal assignment. The arrangement worked satisfactorily for many years.
A young boy from the family of painters from an adjoining town! of Kausãmbi came to Sāketa. His intention was to attach himself to some well known painter there and learn from him. He found accommodation in a family where a young boy of his own age lived with his old widowed mother. The two boys became close friends. One of these days the annual festival was announced and the job of doing the painting fell to the lot of the poor boy of the old widow. She could do nothing about it except weep bitterly. The
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