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SUMATINĀTHACARITRA
279 accompanied by his two wives who looked alike. While he was on the way, one wife bore a son who was brought up equally by the two wives. After he had gained wealth and had started home from the foreign country, he died while still on the way. The course of fate is uncertain. His wives, both of them, their faces bathed in tears from grief, performed the funeral rites and cremated the body. Then the second one, deceitful, quarreled with the boy's mother, saying, “ The boy and the property are mine." The boy's mother and step-mother, the one wishing enjoyment and the other possession of the boy and property, went quickly to Ayodhyā. There they both went to the court of their own and the other's family, but their dispute was not decided in the least. Then, quarreling, they approached the King who summoned them to the assembly and questioned them about the cause of their dispute.
The step-mother said: “This dispute has been told in the whole city, but no one has settled it. Who is distressed by another's calamity? Now I have approached you, King Dharma on earth, pleased by another's pleasure, pained by another's pain. This is the son of my bosom ; he looks like me; he was brought up by me. This property is mine. For the money, etc. belong to the one who has a son."
The boy's mother said : “ The boy is mine ; the money is mine. She, my childless co-wife, quarrels from greed. Formerly, I did not prevent her from caring for the child because of my simplicity ; for she used to take a pillow and lie at his feet from affection. Therefore, arise to give judgment. The decision rests with you. For a judgment by the king, good or bad, is irrevocable."
Thus addressed by both, the King spoke : " These two are as much alike as if they had fallen from the same stalk. If there were any difference in appearance between them, the child would be considered hers whom he resembled ; but he is like them both. He, a little boy, can not speak because of his infancy, to say nothing of
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