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TENTH INCARNATION AS MEGHARATHA 293 scales, all his retinue, crying, “Ha! Ha!” got on the scales of doubt. The vassals, ministers, et cetera, said to the king: “What have you, unfavorable to us, undertaken, lord ? The whole world must be protected by that body. How can you abandon it for the protection of one mere bird? Moreover, he is some god or demon practising sorcery. There is no such weight of a mere bird."
While they were saying this, a god with crown, earrings, and wreath, like a heap of splendor, appeared. The god said to the king: “You are unique among men; you are not to be shaken from humanity, like a house from its own site. The Indra of Išāna described you in the council and I, not tolerating that, came to test you. I saw these two birds ready to fight because of enmity in a former birth and I superintended and arranged this. Pardon this."
After telling this and restoring the king, the god went to heaven. The vassal-kings and others asked the king in astonishment: “What were the hawk and dove in a former birth and what is the cause of their enmity, and who was this god in a former birth ?"
The king related: “There is a city Padminikhanda, like a multitude of lotuses of Sri, the ornament of Airavataksetra in Jambūdvīpa. Sāgaradatta lived there, resembling the ocean in wealth, and he had an irreproachable wife, Vijayasenă. They had two sons, Dhana and Nandana, and they reached youth, gradually growing up. The two of them passed the time, wandering about in various sports, arrogant from their father's wealth.
One day they bowed to Sāgaradatta and said, 'Father, command us to go to a foreign country to trade." Their father, pleased, gave them his permission immediately. For manliness on the part of the son is a delight of first rank to the father. Taking merchandise of many kinds, they set out with a caravan; and came in course of time to a large city, Nāgapura. Doing business there they obtained a certain choice jewel of great value, like two dogs one piece of food. They fought each other on the
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