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CHAPTER ONË lives.” Dirgha said: “Death has come to you in the guise of a son. Do not be confused. While I am alive, sons of yours will be easy to acquire.” Then Culanī, dismissing affection for her son, like a witch, subject to her attachment to erotic love, agreed to that. She counseled:
“He must be destroyed and evil report must be avoided, just as a mango-grove must be sprinkled and the offering of water to the Pitris must be made.312 What device? Or rather, there is this one. Brahman's son must be married. Then a combustible house must be made in the guise of a dwelling. When he and the daughter-in-law are sound asleep in it, which will have a secret entrance and exit, immediately after the wedding a fire must be kindled in it at night."
The two of them, after making this plan, chose Puşpacūla's daughter and all the wedding-gear was prepared. Minister Dhanu found out this cruel intention of theirs and, his hands folded together, informed King Dirgha: “Let my son, Varadhanu, who knows the arts and is expert in polity, be the beast of burden of the chariot of your commands, like a young ox. I, like an old ox, am weak in comings and goings. I will go somewhere and perform a religious act with your permission.”
Thinking, “ After he has gone somewhere else, this deceitful man would do something evil,” Dirgha was afraid of him. Who does not fear the wise ? Dirgha, dissimulating through deceitfulness, said to the minister: “What use do we have for the kingdom without you, like a night without the moon? Practice religion right here with a food-dispensary, et cetera. Do not go elsewhere. A kingdom with people like you looks like a grove with good trees."
Then Dhanu of good intelligence built a pure food-pavilion, like a great umbrella of religion, on the bank of the Bhāgirathi. He kept the food-dispensary flowing uninterruptedly, like the
312 141. Just as water can serve the two purposes of sprinkling trees and making an offering, so a device must be found to kill Brahmadatta and avoid scandal,
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