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CELAŅĀ'S PALACE, DURGANDHĀ, ĀRDRAKUMĀRA 175 the teacher, not otherwise. Have this Mātanga sit on your own lion-throne, Majesty, and you yourself sit on the ground, after making the añjali before him.” For the sake of the charm the king showed him respect. One might get the highest charm even from a low man. That is well-known. The two charms for raising and bending, heard from his lips, remained in the king's mind, like an image in a mirror. Abhaya pacified the king, making the añjali, and had the thief released because he had attained the rank of a charm-teacher.
Story of Durgandhā (127–176) On another day the King of Magadha, filling the directions with the sound of the bells of a troop of elephants; blocking the ground with horses, talking to each other, as it were, in the guise of neighs, dancing in the theater of the road; with the people of the army replendent with umbrellas of peacock-feathers that imitated the beauty of a bank of clouds descending from the sky; his jeweled ear-ornaments dancing quickly as if in rivalry with the prancing riding-horse; born in the saddle, as it were; with a white umbrella rivaling a full moon; with fly-whisks, waved by courtesans resembling Jāhnavi and Yamunā; hymned by bards beautified by gold ornaments, like Sutrāman on earth, went to bow to the son of the Jñātas who was in a samavasaraṇa.
At that time there was a baby-girl on the road, who had been abandoned as soon as born. She had an evil odor from pus, et cetera, like a part of hell that had come. All, unable to bear smelling the odor, held their noses, like reciters of the gāyatri,168 doing breath-exercises, in the evening. Śreņika asked, “What is this?” and his attendants told him about the evil-smelling girl who had been abandoned newly-born. The king who had heard constantly the twelve reflections from the lips of the Arhat, indifferent to disgust, looked at the girl
168 134. A sacred verse recited by Brāhmans in morning and evening devotions.
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