The sprite said, “O king Bir Vikramãjit! There is a city named
Chürãpur, where a king named Chürãman ruled, whose spiritual teacher’s
name was Devaswãmi, and he had a son named Hariswãmï. He was as
beautiful as Cupid, equalled Brihaspati * in his knowledge of scientific
and religious treatises, and was as wealthy as Kuvera. He wedded and
brought home a Brahman’s daughter, whose name was Lãvanyavatï.”
* Brihaspati is the regent of the planet Jupiter, and the
preceptor of the gods. Kuvera is the god of wealth.
“To be brief, one night in the hot season they were both sleeping
soundly on the flat roof of a summer house. The woman’s veil
accidentally slipped off her face, while a demi-god, seated on a car,
was proceeding somewhere through the air. His gaze suddenly falling upon
her, he lowered the car, and placing her, asleep, on the car, flew off
with her. After some time the Brahman also awoke, and lo! his wife was
not (beside him). On this he became alarmed, and coming down from
thence, searched throughout the house. When he did not find her there
either, he went about seeking her through all the streets and lanes of
the city, but did not find her. Thereupon he began to say to himself,
‘Who has carried her off? and whither has she gone?”’
“In short, when his efforts were of no avail, he returned home helpless
and regretful, and searched for her there a second time, but did not
find her. When the house appeared desolate to him without her, he lost
all self-control in his disquietude and misery, and began crying
out, Oh, darling of my soul! oh, darling of my soul! Further, being
exceedingly agitated by her separation from him, he gave up the position
of a householder, renounced the world, girt a simple waist-cloth round
his loins, rubbed the ashes of burnt cow-dung on his body, put on
a necklace of beads, quitted the town, and set out on a pilgrimage.
Proceeding on his pilgrimage from town to town, and village to village,
he reached a certain town at midday.”
“When extreme hunger left him no alternative, he made a cup-shaped
vessel of the leaves of a dhãk-tree, and carrying it to the house of a
Brahman, said to him, ‘Give me some food in alms.’ (The fact is, when a
man comes under the influence of love, he has no thought of duty, caste,
or food; and, regardless of everything, he eats food wherever he can
obtain it.) When he begged alms of the Brahman, he (the Brahman) took
the cup-shaped vessel from him and entered the house, and brought it
(back) to him filled with rice boiled in milk. He took the cup, and came
to the margin of a tank. There was a large banyan-tree there. He placed
the cup at the root of that, and went to wash his face and hands in the
tank.”
“A black snake came out from the roots of the tree, and having dipped
its mouth into the cup, went away; and so the whole contents of the
cup had become poisoned, when, in the meantime, he also returned after
washing his hands and face. This matter, however, was unknown to him;
while hunger, on the other hand, beset him sorely. (Thus) he ate the
rice and milk as soon as he came, and the poison instantly entered his
system. Thereupon he went to the Brahman and said, ‘Thou hast given me
poison, and I am now dying of it.’ Having said so much, he reeled and
fell, and died. Again, the Brahman, seeing him dead, turned his own
wife out of the house, and said, ‘Go thou hence, thou murderess of a
Brahman!’”
Having told so much of the tale, the sprite said, “O king! to which
of these does the guilt of killing a Brahman attach?” The king said,
“Poison exists in a snake’s mouth as a matter of course; therefore no
guilt attaches to it. Again, the Brahman gave him alms, considering him
to be hungry; (therefore) guilt does not attach to him. Further, the
Brahman’s wife had given him alms at the bidding of her husband; she,
too, is without sin. And he ate the milk and rice unwittingly, and
hence he also is guiltless. In short, whoever imputes guilt to anyone of
these, is himself a sinner.” On hearing this, the sprite went again and
hung on to that tree; and the king also went there, and taking him down
and binding him, placed him on his shoulder, and carried him away from
there.