ENTERING ANOTHER'S BODY. 39 



there was no one available to bear the burden of royalty, he kept per- 

 forming his royal acts in deed but not in thought. Thus it has been 

 said : A woman devoted to another man follows her husband f^ thus 

 also an ascetic devoted to the truth follows the sarhsara.'*^ There- 

 fore, though he is in this wise leading the life of a householder, the 

 king's chastity is valid, because his mind is unspotted, even as a lotus 

 that stands in the mud.' 



" The queen then paid reverence to the Sage, and having attained 

 to supreme joy went to some spot in the forest and pitched her camp. 

 She had a rasavatl-pudding^° prepared for herself and train, ordered 

 the Sage to be supplied with the same, and thus fulfilling her vow, 

 ate of it herself. She then went to bid adieu to the Sage, and asked 

 him how now she was to recross the river. The Sage replied with 

 tranquil voice: 'You must say to the River Goddess: "If that Sage 

 since taking his vow has steadily lived in fast, then make passage for 

 me ! " ' The queen in renewed surprise went to the bank of the 

 river, recited the words of the Sage, crossed the river, and arrived 

 home. She narrated everything to the king, and asked : ' How could 

 the Sage be in fast, since I myself entertained him with food? ' The 

 king replied : ' You are simple, O Queen, you do not grasp the spirit 

 of the law : the lofty-minded Sage is indifferent to both eating or 

 non-eating. Even though the Sage in the interest of the law eats 

 pure food that he did not prepare or order to be prepared, neverthe- 

 less that is said to bear the fuit of an unbroken fast. Mind is the 

 root, speech the crown, deed the branch-expansion of the tree of the 

 law : from the firm root of that tree everything springs forth.' 



" When the queen had comprehended this lofty-mindedness of 

 her husband and brother-in-law, in full sympathy^^ she purified her 

 own mind also." The parrot then said : " This essence of the law 

 which I, the parrot, have proclaimed to you illustrating it by story, 

 that verily is illumination"- by light. The mind even of -noble 



*s See the story in Benfey, Pancatantra, II. 258, in which this idea is em- 

 ployed to trick a confiding husband; cf. ibid., I. 371. 



89 These rather loose parallels are intended to illustrate the paradoxical 

 contrast between the king's action and state of soul. 



90 According to Bohtlingk's Lexicon rasavati is curdled milk with sugar 

 and spices; see Tawney's Translation of Prabandhacintamani, pp. 156, 157, 196. 



91 Anumodana, fern., not in the Lexicons. 



92 Dhavalana, abstract noun from dhavalaya, not in the Lexicons. 



