________________
156 TWO PRAKRIT VERSIONS OF THE MANIPATI-CARITA 263. The layman said : Listen, there is in the southern half
of Bharata a river many of whose banks have been felled by blows from the tusks and trunks of forest
elephants, 264. resplendent with dense forests of campaka, aśoka, punnāga,
nāga, svarga and other trees 265. and diversified with herds of antelope, buffalo, wild boar,
lion, yak, hyena and tiger roaming in the forest and
with swans, cranes, warbling swans and other birds, 266. the Ganges; it is famed in the world because of Bhagiratha,
and its water refreshes the plump breasts of the Vidyā
hara women when engaged in bathing. 267. On its bank there lived an elephant, the noble lord of a
herd, with a terrible and towering body supported on
his seven limbs, and hostile to other elephants. 268. That leader of the herd used to kill the elephant calves
as soon as they were born lest they grew up to be his
adversaries. 269. The pleasure of physical contact has a great woe: in
herds the lords of herds do not want any other male
which is conceived in the womb of a beast. 270. There was in the herd one female elephant endowed with
intelligence; being pregnant she thought : he will
kill my calves; 271. mercilessly he has killed five of my calves, so somehow
or other I will save at least one of my sons.' With
this idea 272. falsely affecting lameness she walked lagging in the rear
and the lord of the herd though attached to her by
affection gradually left her behind. 273. For a day or for two or three days he would abandon her
going on ahead. She as she roamed saw an aśrama of
ascetics 274. Putting a bunch of grass on her head she went thither
at once and after making known that she had come for refuge she was hidden by the ascetics.
