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CHAPTER SIX with thirty-two auspicious marks. The sons, tended by nurses, gradually grew up like young elephants on the Vindhya Mountains, their wishes unbroken. Playing in the courtyard, the small boys had the handsome appearance of pleasure-trees of the bird, the Lakşmi of the house. The charioteer Näga took the little boys one by one on his lap and from affection bathed them, as it were, with the water of his tears of joy. With the little boys clinging to his feet, breast, and head the charioteer Nāga had the beautiful appearance of a mountain with young lions. All of charioteer Nāga's sons became companions of Prince Śreņika, being of the same age.
Tests of the princes (94–104) One day, to test the fitness of his sons to rule, the king sent dishes of rice pudding to a certain place for their meal. When the princes had began to eat, he, strong-minded, had dogs, with their mouths wide open like tigers, turned loose. When the dogs rushed at them, the princes got up in a hurry. Śreņika alone stayed just as he was, the abode of wisdom. He gave the dogs rice pudding from another dish, little by little, and while the dogs lapped, he himself ate. The king, delighted by that, thought, “ By some device or other, he will crush his enemies and enjoy the earth himself.”
One day, to test his sons again, the king gave them sealed baskets of sweetmeats and pitchers of water. The king told them, “ Eat the sweetmeats without breaking the seal and drink the water, but do not make a hole (in the pitcher).” Not one of them ate nor drank except Śreņika. What can strong men do in matters to be solved by wit? But Śreņika turned the basket around and around and ate the dust of the sweetmeats which fell from the spaces between the slats. By means of a silver shell under the jar which was filled with drops of water oozing out he drank the water. What is difficult for intelligent persons to accomplish by intelligence? So the King of Kuśāgra city decided that Śreņika had passed the tests with a wealth of cleverness suitable for sovereignty.
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