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BRAHMADATTACAKRICARITA
of an evil story, said again to me:
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At the time when the combustible house was burned, at dawn Dirgha saw one burned skull, but not three skulls. He saw the tunnel there and at its end horses' tracks and, knowing that you two had escaped by Dhanu's wit, he was very angry with him. He gave orders to patrols in every direction with unstumbling progress like the light of the sun to capture you and take you in. Minister Dhanu escaped but your mother was thrown into the candala-quarter like hell by Dirgha.'
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Wounded by that news that was like a boil upon a boil, having pain coming on top of pain, I went to Kampilya. There I became a fictitious kāpālika and constantly entered house after house in the caṇḍāla-quarter, like a spy. When I was asked by the people there the reason for my roaming, I said, 'This is the practice of a caṇḍāla-magic art of mine.' Friendship, the vessel of confidence, was created by me roaming there in this way. What is not accomplished by deceit on the part of the one without a protector?
One day I said to the mother through them, Kaunḍinya, an ascetic, a friend of your son, salutes you.' On the next day I went myself and gave the mother a citron containing a pill and she became unconscious from it when it had been eaten. The city-superintendent went and reported to the king, 'She is dead,' and his own men were ordered by the king to see to her cremation.
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When they came there, I said to them, 'If her cremation takes place at this moment, there will be a great misfortune to you and the king,' and they went to their house. I said to the guard, 'If you help, I shall acquire a charm by means of the corpse of this woman who has all the marks.' The guard agreed and at evening, accompanied by him alone, I took my mother to the cemetery far away. On the bare ground I made circles, et cetera craftily and then sent the guard to make an oblation to the city-goddesses.
When he had gone, I gave the mother another pill and she
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