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CHAPTER FOUR
bank of the river Sankha on account of the jewel, angered, like untamed bulls. While they were fighting, they fell into a deep pool of the river and died at once. Whose greed does not lead to death? After death the two brothers were born as these two birds and became enemies in this birth because of enmity in the former birth.
Furthermore, Stimitasagara was king in the city Subha on the south bank of the Sita in the province Ramaṇīyaka, the ornament of East Videha in this Jambudvipa and I was his son, Aparajita, in the fifth birth before this. Then I was Baladeva and my younger brother, Anantavirya, was Vasudeva. He is Drdharatha now. At that time long-armed Damitāri was Prativiṣṇu and was killed by me in a fight about his daughter Kanakasri. After he had wandered in the forest of existence, he became the son of the ascetic Somaprabha on the bank of the river Nikṛti at the foot of Mt. Aṣṭāpada in Bharata in Jambudvipa. He practiced foolish penance and became a god, Surupa. This god, intolerant of the praise bestowed on me by the Indra of Iśāna came and made this test of me."
After they had heard this speech of the king, the hawk and dove, recalling their former births, at once fell to the ground in a swoon. They regained consciousness again, like persons rousing from sleep, from fanning and sprinkling made by the king's servants. They said to the king in their own speech: "It is well that you have made us know that the crime of a former birth is the cause of such a birth,842 O master. Not only was a human-birth lost when we fought then over the jewel because we had become exceedingly greedy. Now a birth in hell was at hand, but we were headed off from that by you, like a blind man from a well, O master. Henceforth, protect, protect us from the wrong road, O master. Teach us the right road by which we may obtain an auspicious rank." 842 308, An animal-birth.
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