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16. JAINA RELIGIOUS AND MORAL STORIES
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merchant prince and the son-in-law of king Viśvambhara. The merchant Śrīdatta overheard the conversation of the two sages, and, burning with envy, he devised a nefarious plan. No sooner had the child been burn than he spread a report that Dhanaśrī had given birth to a dead child. At the same time he secretly summoned a Cāņdāla and handed the child to him to be put to death.
The Cāņdāla was moved to pity by the beauty of the child, and instead of killing, he left him in a secluded place and went home. The merchant Indradatta, who was the brother-in-law of Sridatta, came to know about the child from some cow-boys; and as he was childless, he came to the spot and gave the child to his wife Rādhā to be adopted as their son. Then he celebrated great festivities as if a child had been born unto them.
Sridatta heard of the turn things had taken, and devised another plan to kill the child. He went to Indradatta and persuade him the custody of the child, his blessed nephew', whom he would bring up in his own house. Śrīdatta then made over the child to another Cāņdāla to be put to death.
The Cāņdāla, instead of killing the child, left him in a wood on the bank of a river, and there he was guarded by the cows grazing on the spot. In the evening the cowherds came, and, finding the child, reported the fact to the head of the settlement Govinda, who gave him to his wife and adopted him as his own son. The child grew up to be a handsome youth and was named Dhanakirti.
One day Śrīdatta happened to come to the place in the course of his commercial transactions, and saw Dhanakīrti in the house of Govinda. He understood everything when he heard the story of the youth, and told Govinda that he had an urgent message to send to his son at home, and requested that Dhanakirti might be sent as a messenger, Govinda agreed, and Dhanakirti set out on his journey with Sridatta's letter, in which the merchant asked his son Mahābala to kill the youth immediately on his arrival. Dhanakīrti took rest on his way under a mango tree and fell fast asleep. A courtesan named Anangasenā, who was gathering flowers nearby, happened to see the youth and approached him while he was asleep, and seeing a letter suspended from his neck, took it and read it through. Cursing the merchant she substituted for it another letter addressed to his wife and son, in which he was represented as enjoining them to give his daughter Srimati in marriage to Dhanakirti The latter woke up after the courtesan's departure; and on arrival at the merchant's house, he delivered the letter to Mahābala and his mother, and was duly married to Śrimati.
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