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the noose in hand; indeed, if I were wilfully to abandon my life, I should be a self-murderer." When he said this, and Death found that he could not take him on account of his power, he turned away from him and returned as he came. Then Indra repenting seized that Kála,*[1] who had conquered Time the destroyer, in his arms, and took him up to heaven by force. There he remained averse to the sensual enjoyments of the place, and he did not cease from muttering prayers, so the gods made him descend again, and he returned to the Himálayas. And while all the gods were trying to induce him there to take a boon, the king Ikshváku came that way. When he heard how affairs stood, he said to that mutterer of prayers, " If you will not receive a boon from the gods, receive one from me." When the mutterer of prayers heard that, he laughed, and said to the king— " Are you able to grant me a boon, when I will not receive one even from the gods?" Thus he spoke, and Ikshváku answered the Bráhman— " If I am not able to grant you a boon, you can grant me one; so grant me a boon." Then the mutterer said— " Choose whatever you desire, and I will grant it." When the king heard this, he reflected in his mind: " The appointed order is that I should give, and that he should receive; this is an inversion of the due order, that I should receive what he gives." Whilst the king was delaying, as he pondered over this difficulty, two Bráhmans came there disputing; when they saw the king they appealed to him for a decision. The first said, " This Bráhman gave me a cow with a sacrificial fee: why will he not receive it from my hand, when I offer to give it back to him?" Then the other said, " I did not receive it first, and I did not ask for it, then why does he wish to make me receive it by force?" When the king heard this, he said— " This complainant is not in the right; why, after receiving the cow, do you try to compel the man, who gave it, to take it back from you?" When the king said this, Indra, having found his opportunity, said to him— " King, if you hold this view of what is right, then, after you have asked the Bráhman, who mutters prayers, for a boon, why do you not take it from him when it is granted?" Then the king, being at a loss for an answer, said to that muttering "Bráhman— " Revered sir, give me the fruit of half your muttering as a boon." Then the muttering Bráhman said— " Very well, receive the fruit of half my muttering," and so he gave the king a boon. By means of that boon the king obtained access to all the worlds, and that muttering Bráhman obtained the world of the gods called Śivas. †[2] There he remained for many kalpas, and then returned to earth, and by mystic contemplation obtained independence, and gained everlasting supernatural power.
