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CHAPTER THREE
counting them how many fruits are on this tree. I shall show you a marvel on the way back.' The hunchback said: 'King, are you afraid of the loss of time? Do not be afraid with me, expert in horsemanship, as your charioteer. With one blow of my fist I shall make all these fruits fall in front of you, like a cloud making fall drops of rain. The king said: 'Make the fruit fall, indeed, hunchback. There are eighteen thousand of them. See a marvel.'
The hunchback knocked them down and the king counted them. There were just as many as he had said, not one more nor one less. The hunchback gave the magic art of horsemanship to Dadhiparṇa, who asked for it, and received from him fittingly the magic art of numbers. At dawn the hunchback-charioteer reached with the chariot the outskirts of Vidarbha and King Dadhiparņa's face was blooming like a lotus.
Just then in the last part of the night Vaidarbhi saw a dream which she described to her father joyfully, just as it was. 'I saw the goddess Nirvṛti 158 today at dawn, while I was comfortably asleep. She showed me in the sky a garden of Kośala which she had brought here. At her command I climbed a mango tree which had flowers and fruit. She put a blooming lotus in my hand. When I had climbed the tree, a bird, which had gone up before, fell to the ground at once.'
Bhima said: 'Daughter, this is a very fine dream. Surely, the goddess Nirvṛti is your heap of merit which has matured. The garden of Kośalā seen in the air confers lordship over Kośala on you. According to the climbing of the mango, you will soon meet your husband. The bird that had climbed there first and fell-King Kübara will doubtless fall from the throne. From seeing the dream at dawn, Nala will meet you today. For a dream at this time bears fruit quickly.'
158 1014. The only goddess Nirvṛti that I have been able to find is a śāsanadevată of Santinātha, who is called Nirvāņi. The variant would be permissible. I owe this identification to Pandit L. B. Gandhi.
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