A Brahmana having told some men to come from a certain city, and
having praised the robes which the King of the city is wearing, this
Brahmana made seven stanzas, and gave them to those seven men. Those
very seven men having taken the seven stanzas and gone, employed yet
[another] Brahmana and got them explained. Should you say, "How was
the meaning?" it was praise of the copper [coloured] silk robe which
the King of that city is wearing.
After they got this meaning explained, these seven men spoke together,
"Let us make up a trick at this place." Speaking [thus] together,
they arrived at a city at which there is a foolish King.
Arriving [there], they spoke to the King of the city: "Maharaja, what
a robe that is which Your Majesty is wearing! We have woven a copper
[coloured] silk robe for the King of our city, and given it. It is
like the thin silk robes obtained from the divine world. Having looked
in the direction of that King, when we looked in your direction you
appear like a servant who is near that King," these seven men said.
While hearing this word, shame was produced in the King. Having been
produced, he thought to himself, "While I also am a King, what is it to
me!" Thinking, "Cannot I cause those silk robes to be woven?" he asked,
"For [weaving] the silk robes what sort of other things are necessary?"
Then the seven men say regarding it, "Having obtained silk thread from
good silk yarn (lit., thread), be good enough to give us it. Having
constructed a place in your auspicious [47] Sal [trees] garden, you
must give us it. You must bring to that place and give us food and
drink," they said to the King. Having said it, they said at the very
time, "The silk cloth that we weave is not visible to a base-born
person. Should he be a well-born (saha-jataka) person it is visible
to him," they said to the King.
At that time the King having procured silk thread to his mind gave
it. The men having taken it to the auspicious Sal garden, and the
party putting the thread away, when people come to look at the
copper [coloured] silk robes these seven men run there and here in
the auspicious Sal [48] garden. The silk robe is not visible; only
according to the manner in which these seven persons are running the
extent [of it] is visible. Thereupon the men think in their minds,
"Because we are base-born this copper [coloured] silk robe is not
visible to us." What of their thinking so! Except that each separate
person thinks it for himself, no one speaks it.
The King sent a messenger for the purpose of looking whether, having
woven the robes, they are finished. Having seen that, except that
after tying the hand-lines (at-wael) they are causing [their arms]
to row (paddanawa), [49] the robe is not visible, [he thought],
"Should I say that I do not perceive the robe they will say I am the
son of a courtesan." Because of shame at it, the messenger having gone
to the royal house, said, "The gang of them having assembled together
are weaving a priceless robe. His [50] work is not finished. Having
completed the work they will dress Your Honour in the robe," he said.
On account of the statement of the messenger, many persons went to
look at the robe, but except that they were causing [their arms] to
row, the robe was not visible to anyone. The whole of the retinue who
came, through fear that they will say they are illegitimate persons,
without seeing the robe having said and said, "We perceive it. It is
indeed a very costly robe," went away.
Having woven for seven days, after the seven days' date which they
got to finish in had elapsed, the King went to look at the silk
robe. Having gone, when he looked it was not visible to the King
also. What of its not [being visible]! He does not tell anyone the
word of its not being visible.
After that, those men having come, said to the King, "Having woven the
copper [coloured] silk robe, it is finished. For you, Sir, with our
[own] hands we must robe you in it," they said. "Having got out all the
clothes which there are, descended from seven ancestors in succession,
you must dress. Having dressed, you must give us all those clothes,"
they said to the King.
The King, having heard the word, taking out all the royal vestments
[51] that were of the time of his ancestors, and having adorned
himself in a good manner, and driven away everybody, gave the party
these clothes and all the other clothes that there were.
After he gave them, all the seven men having surrounded him and said
that they are putting on the King the copper [coloured] silk dress,
began to stroke his body everywhere. They began to stroke the head,
having said that they were putting on the crown. They stroked the
arms, having said that they were putting on the jacket. In that
way having stroked all parts of the body, and having said that they
had dressed him, they caused them to bring the King into the middle
of the great retinue, and said thus to the citizens: "Neither His
Majesty our King nor any person of the retinue dwelling in this
city in the olden time before this, either put on a robe in this
manner, or saw one. Because of that, the whole of you, [after our]
dressing His Majesty the King in this robe, causing His Majesty the
King to sit on the festival tusk elephant, and having caused him to
perambulate towards the right through all places in the city, again
conduct him to the royal house." Having said this, they brought the
tusk elephant, and caused the King to sit on the tusk elephant naked;
and they began to go in procession to all places of the city.
These men, taking [the contents of] this house of the royal insignia
(rajabandagare), and having acted deceitfully, and said that they
had woven the copper [coloured] silk robe,--because they got [the
contents of] the house of the royal insignia when they were going,
established for the city the name "[City] of Tambraparnni Island,"
[52] and went away.
This foolish King remained without clothes.
North-western Province.
In Indian Nights' Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 60, a girl who had
promised to prove that the King sometimes lied, invited the King to
visit a palace she had built, and to see God there, but stated he was
visible only to one person at a time, and only if he was of legitimate
birth. The two Ministers first entered successively, saw nothing,
and declared that they had seen God inside. The King then entered,
and on coming out insisted that he also had seen God there. The girl
then convicted him of telling a falsehood, and as usual in folk-tales
was married by the King.
In Les Avadanas (Julien), No. xxxix, vol. i, p. 150, there is a story
of a fool who handed some cotton to a spinner, and begged him to make
it into extremely fine thread. The man did so, but the fool thought
it too coarse. The spinner became angry, and pointing to the air with
his finger, said, "There are extremely fine threads." When the man
asked how it was he could not see them, the spinner replied it was
because of their extreme thinness, which was such that even the best
workmen could not see them, much less a stranger. The fool gave him
a fresh order, and paid him handsomely.