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YASASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
attributed the downfall of their king, and, after pelting him with stones, and mercilessly whipping him, drove him out of the city, half-dead, mounted on a donkey, and compelled to wear a wreath of potsherds round his neck. Parvata took refuge in a dense forest, and there on the bank of a stream he was seen by Kālāsura, who approached him and won his confidence by representing himself to be his father's friend Sāņdilya. Parvata told him his story, how after the death of his father he had been addicted to drink, meat and courtesans, and gave a wrong interpretation of the text ajair yaştavyam knowing it to be false, down to his dispute with Nārada and its unhappy sequel.
Kālāsura consoled Parvata and asked him to take heart and join him in a new venture. He persuaded Parvata to insert in the Vedic texts injunctions sanctioning various sacrifices involving slaughter of animals, use of wine, and moral laxity and perversion. He then came to Ayodhyā, and in the outskirts of the city assumed the form of the god Brahman, and commenced a vast sacrifice at which Parvata acted as the Adhvaryu or officiating priest. Magic forms of sages like Pingala, Manu, Matanga, Marici and Gautama recited Vedic mantras, while Parvata propounded the doctrine that the animals were created for sacrifices, and killing at sacrifices was not tantamount to killing, since sacrifices contributed to the good of all. Goats, birds, elephants, horses and other animals were accordingly killed at the sacrifice and their flesh offered as oblations in the fire. Kālāsura by his magic showed the slain animals as going about in heaven in aerial cars, and the phantom sages proclaimed the glory of the phenomenon.
The exploits of Kālāsura created a sensation among the people and attracted the notice of Sagara and Visvabhūti, who were also induced by him to sacrifice animals and partake of their flesh. Kālāsura then reminded them of the wrong they had done him during his previous birth, and murdered both by throwing them into the sacrificial fire amidst the oblations. Parvata continued to kill numerous animals for sacrificial purposes, but Kālāsura disappeared soon after. Helpless and miserable without his friend, Parvata suffered and died and went to hell.
XVI) The story of Kaļārapinga and Padrā is meant to illustrate the consequences of illicit passion. Dharsana was the king of Benares and Ugrasena was his minister. Puşya was the king's priest, and he had a beautiful young wife named Padmā. Kadārapinga, the son of the minister, was a misguided and dissolute youth, who one day saw Padmã, while walking in the streets with his boon-companions, and was at once enamoured of her. There was an old nurse named Tadillatá, and she was persistently implored by the young man to help him to fulfil his heart's desire. The nurse thought it advisable to consult Ugrasena about his son's request, but the minister who was in his dotage openly encouraged her in the evil project,
үтт
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