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is equal in weight to the dove.' Then Indra and Dharma abandoned the form of hawk and dove, and being highly pleased restored the body of king Śivi whole as before, and, after bestowing on him many other blessings, they both disappeared. In the same way this Bráhman is some god that has come to prove me."*[1]
Having said this to his ministers, that king Suśarman of his own motion said to that excellent Gana that had assumed the form of a Bráhman, prostrating himself before him in fear, "Spare me; that daughter-in-law of thine was carried off last night. She has been taken somewhere or other by magic arts, though guarded night and day." Then the Gana, who had assumed the Bráhman's semblance, pretending to be with difficulty won over to pity him, said, "If this be so, king, give thy daughter in marriage to my son." When he heard this, the king afraid of being cursed, gave his own daughter to Devadatta: then Panchaśikha departed. Then Devadatta having recovered his beloved, and that in an open manner, flourished in the power and splendour of his father-in-law who had no son but him. And in course of time Suśarman anointed the son of his daughter by Devadatta, Mahídhara by name, as successor in his room, and retired to the forest. Then having seen the prosperity of his son, Devadatta considered that he had attained all his objects, and he too with the princess retired to the forest. There he again propitiated Śiva, and having laid aside his mortal body, by the special favour of the god he attained the position of a Gana. Because he did not understand the sign given by the flower dropped from the tooth of his beloved, therefore he became known by the name of Pushpadanta in the assembly of the Ganas. And his wife became a door-keeper in the house of the goddess, under the name of Jayá: this is how he came to be called Pushpadanta: now hear the origin of my name.
Long ago I was a son of that same Bráhman called Govindadatta the father of Devadatta, and my name was Somadatta. I left my home indignant for the same reason as Devadatta, and I performed austerities on the Himálaya continually striving to propitiate Śiva with offerings of many garlands. The god of the moony crest, being pleased, revealed himself to me in the same way as he did to my brother, and I chose the privilege of attending upon him as a Gana, not being desirous of lower pleasures. The husband of the daughter of the mountain, that mighty god, thus addressed
- ↑ * Benfey considers this story as Buddhistic in its origin. In the " Memoires Surles Contrées Occidentals tradnits du Sanscrit par Hiouen Thsang et du Chinois par Stanislas Julien" we are expressly told that Gautama Buddha gave his flesh; to the hawk as Śivi in a former state of existence. It is told of many other person, see Benfey's Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 388, cp. also Campbell's West Highland Tales, p. 239, Vol. I, Tale XVI.
