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ta; recall it to mind, my beloved." When I hoard that speech of Siva, I came here overjoyed, knowing that the calamity of my curse would be terminated by the arrival of Pushpadanta. "When Kanabhuti ceased after telling this story, that moment Vararuchi remembered his origin, and exclaimed like one aroused from sleep, "I am that very Pushpadanta, hear that tale from me." Thereupon Katyayana related to him the seven great tales in seven hundred thousand verses, and then Kanabhuti said to him— "My lord, thou art an incarnation of S'iva, who else knows this story? Through thy favour that curse has almost left my body. Therefore tell me thy own history from thy birth, thou mighty one, sanctify me yet further, if the narrative may be revealed to such a one as I am." Then Vararuchi, to gratify Kanabhuti, who remained prostrate before him, told all his history from his birth at full length, in the following words:
In the city of Kausambi there lived a Brahman called Somadatta, who also had the title of Agnisikha, and his wife was called Vasudatta. She was the daughter of a hermit, and was born into the world in this position in consequence of a curse ; and I was born by her to this excellent Brahman, also in consequence of a curse. Now while I was still quite a child my father died, but my mother continued to support me, as I grew up, by severe drudgery; then one day two Brahmans came to our house to stop a night, exceedingly dusty with a long journey; and while they were staying in our house there arose the noise of a tabor, thereupon my mother said to me, sobbing, as she called to mind her husband "there, my son, is your father's friend Bhavananda, giving a dramatic entertainment." I answered, "I will go and see it, and will exhibit the whole of it to you, with a recitation of all the speeches." On hearing that speech of mine, those Brahmans were astonished, but my mother said to them—"Come, my children, there is no doubt about the truth of what he says; this boy will remember by heart everything that he has heard once." Then they, in order to test me, recited to me a Pratisakhya*[1]; immediately I repeated the whole in their presence, then I went with the two Brahmans and saw that play, and when I came home, I went through the whole of it in front of my mother: then one of the Brahmans, named Vyadi, having ascertained that I was able to recollect a thing on hearing it once, told with submissive reverence this tale to my mother.
Mother, in the city of Vetasa there were two Brahman brothers, Deva-Swamin and Karambaka, who loved one another very dearly, this Indradatta here is the son of one of them, and I am the son of the other, and my name
- ↑ A grammatical treatise on the rules regulating the euphonic combination of letters and their pronunciation peculiar to one of the different Sakhas or branches of the Vedas. M. W. s. v.
