Analytical Account of the Pancha Tantra. 183 



ability, suavity, and respectability, are qualities that shine with little lustre 

 in the person of a poor man. Dignity, pride, discernment, conceit, or 

 intellect are all lost, when a man is poor ; as the freshness of the dewy 

 season is dissipated by the breeze of spring. The most brilliant talents 

 will be of little benefit to their possessor, whose thoughts are all occupied in 

 devising means for the support of his family, and when, for the exercise of 

 lofty fancies, are substituted clothes, rice, oil, salt and ghee. Men without 

 wealth are of no note amongst their fellows. They perish, as they are born, 

 unheeded, like bubbles on the stream." 



" Impelled by these considerations, he determined to abstain from food, 

 and so terminate his life. For what, he exclaimed, is the use of a 

 miserable existence? With this resolve, he fell asleep. In his sleep the 

 Padma-nidhi* appeared to him under the form of an old Jaina mendicant, 

 and forbade him to despair. You have been, he said, a faithful wor- 

 shipper of me, and I will not desert you. In the morning early, you shall 

 see me again, as I now appear : do you then take a staff, and strike me on 

 the head ; on which I shall be changed immediately to a pile of gold. He 

 then disappeared. 



" When the merchant rose, in the morning, he recollected his vision, but 

 could scarcely persuade himself, that it would so come to pass. He referred 

 it to the subject of his previous thoughts ; as it is said : To those who are 

 in sickness, or in sorrow, whose minds are occupied with anxiety or desire, 

 the object of their waking wishes is presented in their dreams. 



" At this time, the barber, who had been sent foi by the merchant's wife, 

 to pare her nails, arrived, and whilst he was busy at his work, the seeming 



* The mdhi is properly a treasure ; and is especially a kind of wealth appertaining to Ku- 

 v^RA, the God of Riches. The nidhis, or their superintendants at least, are personifications; 

 and are, as such, worshipped (See M^gha Duta, in a note). The worship is of the Tdntrika 

 description. The Sdradd Tilaka, a celebrated authority of that school, contains the following 

 directions for adoring the Sdnkha and Padma-nidkis, in conjunction with Lakshmi, the Goddess of 

 Prosperity. " 1. Let the votary worship the Sankha-nidhi, and his spouse upon the right hand of 

 the Goddess: him corpulent; and her full breasted : both adorned with pearls and rubies, both 

 exhibiting gentle smiles upon their lotus-like countenances, locked in each others arms, and each 

 holding a lotus and a shell, both scattering showers of pearls, and each bearing a conch upon the 

 forehead. 2. Let him adore the Padma nidhi, placed with his wife upon the left hand of the 

 Goddess: both of the colour of minium, each in the other's embrace, and cither holding a red 

 lotus and a blue one : both employed in raining jewels, and either wearing a lotus as a cresf : 

 the male Padma nidhi corpulent, the female slender." 



