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a gradually sloping back, with a tail not quite equal to his trunk, adorned with twenty nails, with low hindquarters and high front quarters; endowed with all the favorable marks, in course of time he became a mature elephant.
One day when he went to the river to drink, he saw his father, lord of the herd who, engaging in a fight, was killed. He himself became lord of the herd and thought to himself: "I have been protected in that hermitage by my mother by trickery. Some other elephant, born and protected in that hermitage, must not do to me what I, having been protected, did to my father. With this thought he destroyed the entire hermitage and made its site unmarked, like a river dry ground. "He will not give the hermitage any peace, evil-minded, the ascetics described the elephant to Śrenika as suitable for a king, with all the favorable marks. Śrenika went quickly, captured this best of elephants, and led him back. Kings are eager about the divisions of the army. 163 The elephant, though insuperably strong, was tied at once to a post. Just as nothing is impenetrable by water, what is impossible for men to accomplish? His trunk, tail, and ear-flaps motionless from anger, he stood as if painted, though he was free of leg-fetters. "Thank heaven, the hermitage has become peaceful. The ascetics, delighted at this thought, came and reviled the elephant tied to a post.
"We cherished you, protected you, fed you, and reared you; and you, wretch, destroyed your own house, like a fire. Since you, arrogant because of your strength destroyed, our hermitage, you have attained this friendship with the tyingpost, the fruit of that deed."
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The elephant thought, "Certainly these ascetics have made me reach this condition by employing some device. " Angered, he quickly broke the post like a plantain-stem and broke the chain with a crack, like a lotus-stalk. His face red like heated copper, he ran to the forest, scattering the ascetics like bees even
163 346. Of which one is elephants.
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