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VASUDEVA'S MARRIAGE WITH KANAKAVATI 139 and got down by the girth.
Then Nala, whose glory was brilliant, not thinking about a bow (to the king), sat down near Dadhiparņa, like a friend. Then Dadhiparņa said to him: 'O hunchback skilled in elephant-training, what else do you know? There is ability on your part. The hunchback said: “King, what else shall I tell you? I know a pudding cooked in the sun. Do you wish to see it?' The king went home and, curious about the sun-cooked pudding, gave the hunchback rice, vegetables, a condiment of mixed spices, et cetera. Nala put the saucepans in the heat of the sun, recalled the magic art Sauri and quickly made the divine pudding. The king and his retinue ate the pudding as delightful as if it had been bestowed by a special wishing-tree.
. After tasting the pudding, which removed fatigue and gave extreme joy, King Dadhiparņa said: “Nala and no one else knows a pudding like this. I have been acquainted with this for a long time, as I served Nala. Are you Nala with a changed appearance ? Nala is not like this. How would he come a distance of two hundred yojanas? Why this solitariness of the king of half of Bharata ? His beauty, as I saw it, surpassed that of god and Khecaras.' : Then the king, satisfied, gave the hunchback garments, ornaments, et cetera, a lac of coins and five hundred villages. The hunchback accepted all that except the five hundred villages and the king said, "What else can be given you, hunchback?' The hunchback said: 'Grant this wish of mine. Forbid hunting and wine-drinking, so far as you writ runs.' The king honored his word and prevented even talk about hunting and wine-drinking in his jurisdiction.
One day King Dadhiparņa said to the hunchback in private: “Who are you? Where have you come from? Where do you live? Speak.' The hunchback said: 'I am King Nala's cook, named Hundika, in Kośalā. I studied the arts at his side. Nala lost the whole earth to his brother Kūbara in gambling and went to live in the forest with
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