515
When Naraváhanadatta heard this tale from his minister Gomukha, he and Alankáravatí were delighted, and then he performed the duties of the day.
CHAPTER LIII.
Then, on the next day, Naraváhanadatta's friend Marubhúti said to him, when he was in the company of Alankáravatí— " See, king, this miserable dependent*[1] of yours remains clothed with one garment of leather, with matted hair, thin and dirty, and never leaves the royal gate, day or night, in cold or heat; so why do you not shew him favour at last? For it is better that a little should be given in time, than much when it is too late; so have mercy on him before he dies." When Gomukha heard this, he said— " Marubhúti speaks well, but you, king, are not the least in fault in this matter; for until a suitor's guilt, which stands in his way, is removed, a king, even though disposed to give, cannot give; but when a man's guilt is effaced, a king gives, though strenuously dissuaded from doing so; this depends upon works in a previous state of existence. And á propos of this, I will tell you, O king, the story of Lakshadatta the king, and Labdhadatta the dependent; listen."
Story of king Lakshadatta and his dependent Labdhadatta †[2].:—There was on the earth a city named Lakshapura. In it there lived a king named Lakshadatta, chief of generous men. He never knew how to give a petitioner less than a lac of coins, but he gave five lacs to any one with whom he conversed. As for the man with whom he was pleased, he lifted him out of poverty, for this reason his name was called Lakshadatta. A certain dependent named Labdhadatta stood day and night at his gate, with a piece of leather for his only loin-rag. He had matted hair, and he never left the king's gate for a second, day or night, in cold, rain, or heat, and the king saw him there. And, though he remained there long in misery, the king did not give him anything, though he was generous and compassionate.
- ↑ * The word in the original is kárpatika. Böhtlingk and Roth explain it in this passage as " ein im Dienste eines Fürsten stehender Bettler." It appears from Taranga 81, that a poor man became a kárpatika by tearing a karpata, a ragged garment, in a king's presence. The business of a kárpatika seems to have been to do service without getting anything for it.
- ↑ † Cp. the 1st Novel in the 10th Day of the Decameron and Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 197.
