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104
YAŠASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
Dhişaņa killed king Durdharsa by presenting him with a jewel casket containing a deadly artificial serpent. Another king, Kaņapa? by name, killed a rival named Krpana by sending him a perfumed cloth for covering idols which was coated with a deadly poison. These stories are also mentioned with slight variations in Nītivākyām?ta (Chap. 13) wherein we are told that a king of Karahāta named Kaitabha killed king Vasu by presenting him with a marvellous cloth perfumed with a deadly poison, and a king named Karavāla killed king Karāla by sending him a jewel casket containing a venomous serpent. Somadeva clearly says in the latter work that letters and presents sent by an enemy should not be accepted without being examined by trustworthy persons (13. 15).
A king should also be on his guard in his relations with women. This is, as a matter of fact, one of the lessons of the romance; and the subject is also treated in detail in Nitivākyāmsta (Chap. 24). given in the latter work (24, 32) that nothing coming from the ladies' apartments should be eaten by the king has a direct bearing on the story of Yasodhara. Free and careless association with the inmates of the harem is held to be a source of danger to the king (Book IV, p. 153): अन्तःपुरे भूमिपतिर्मदान्धः करोति यः संगतिमङ्गनाभिः । तस्य ध्रुवं स्यादचिरेण मृत्युर्बिलप्रवेशादिव दर्दुरस्य ॥ “Verily, the king who, blind with passion, associates with women in the inner apartments, soon loses his life, like a frog entering a serpent's hole.” The idea occurs also in Nītivākyāmsta- .
grer adeiast ga Tetaan 27T: 1 24. 31. Further, both works record a number of traditions, with slight variations, to illustrate how kings are sometimes assassinated by women with devices of their own. For instance, in the Yavana country a queen named Maņikuņdalā killed king Ajarāja (Angarāja) by giving him a mouthfiil of poisoned wine, in order to place her son on the throne. In the country of Sūrasena, Vasantamati killed king Suratavilāsa by kissing him with lips painted with poisoned red lac. In the Daśārņa country Vrkodari killed king Madanārņava with her girdle-jewel smeared with poison. In Magadha, Madirākşi killed king Manmathavinoda with a sharp-edged mirror, and
1 Ibid. p. 550; Ms. A reads up. 2
TER 7 q:facto! 3 #foretrug forargar foreftforurauto (Yaśastilaku); Bffarfau atahisarda
(Nitiväkyämrta). Envenomed gifts are familiar in Groek literature. In one version of the story of Modea she kills her rival Glauce by presenting hor with a poisoned robe and crown. Cf. Euripides, Modea, 1116 899. and Diodorus Siculus, IV. 54. 6. The death of Heracles caused by the deadly robo' unwittingly sent by his aggrieved wife is the theme of the Trachiniae of Sophocles.
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