by Visnu Sarma
‘Have this little creature for your wholesome diet28 for the time being; I shall see what I can find and bring you something else at dawn.’ And the lioness at once remarked, ‘Beloved: you spared his life because you thought, “he is a baby”. How can I then kill and eat him to fill my belly? For we have been taught this:
(36) Refrain from what is prohibited
even when life itself is at stake;
do not abandon what is prescribed;
this the Eternal Law states.
‘So, this fellow shall be my third son.’ Saying this she started nursing him at her own breast and soon he became very strong and healthy. So the three cubs grew up together unaware of any genetic difference and spent their childhood acting the same way and indulging in the same amusements.
Now, one day, a wild elephant roaming around came to that part of the forest. Seeing the elephant, the two lion-cubs quivering with fury started towards him, eager for the kill. But the jackal cub restrained them saying, ‘Oh, no! This is an elephant, an enemy of your race; so don’t go near him, brothers.’ With these words, he ran home as fast as he could. Seeing their elder brother turn tail, the two lion cubs became dispirited. Ah! How admirably put:
(37) One single doughty warrior
with fiery courage headed for battle,
fires an army entire,
but if there is one broken blighter,
the entire army is routed.
And so:
(38) For this reason, the Earth’s rulers
look only for mighty warriors,
valiant, resolute, fiery-spirited; and steer clear of the faint-hearted..
On reaching home, the twin lion cubs, laughing heartily, reported all that had happened to their parents with real zest, describing how their elder brother had behaved. ‘You know what,’ they said, ‘the moment he saw the elephant, he couldn’t run fast enough to put a safe distance between himself and the beast.’
The jackal cub heard this and his heart distended with anger; his blossom-lip quivered, his eyes reddened; his brows twisted into triple-arched curves. And he spoke harshly, severely reprimanding his siblings.
The lioness then took the little cub aside and gently admonished him. ‘Now, now, sweet child; you should never talk like this to them; they are your brothers.’
But her gentle, calming words only made the jackal cub even angrier and he turned on her in a fury chiding her bitterly, ‘What?’ he exclaimed, ‘Am I inferior to these two in courage and beauty, in learning and skills? Or in discipline and use of the mind? Am I? That they should ridicule me in this manner? I shall kill them; don’t you doubt that.’
The lioness laughed quietly at this outburst; as she did not wish to see him die she recited this verse:
(39) ‘Brave you are, handsome too, my boy,
and you have acquired knowledge;
but you come of a lineage
where no elephant is slain.
‘Now pay close attention to what I have to tell you. My darling child, you are the son of a jackal mother, whom out of compassion I reared, feeding you with my own milk to make you strong. So, while my two sons are still babies, and do not know that you are a jackal, you had better make haste and run away to live among your own people. Otherwise, once they know the truth, you can be certain that you are walking the path to death.’
When he heard this the jackal cub was terrified to death; and he quietly stole away to join his own people.
‘Therefore, good potter, you too had better quickly take yourself off from here before these seasoned warriors find out that you are a potter. Otherwise, you will be scorned, hooted at and killed.’
The potter got the message and quickly made himself scarce.
‘Therefore I say to you, “The fake, unmindful of his own interests…” and so on. Oh, you blockhead, shame on you! To undertake a deed like this for your wife. Never trust a woman. The moral is aptly pointed out in this little tale:
(40) My family I forsook for her,
I was deprived of half my life for her;
and now she leaves me, cold, uncaring;
Oh! What man can trust a woman!’
‘Ah! How was that?’ asked the crocodile, Hideous Jaws. And the ape, Red Face, then began the tale of The Ungrateful Wife.
Once in a certain settlement there lived a Brāhmana who loved his wife more than his life. She quarrelled daily with all his family without rest and to such an extent that he found life unbearable. So he forsook his family and taking his wife with him departed to some distant land.
In the middle of a great forest, the Brāhmani, said to him, ‘My lord, I am dying of thirst. Can you find some water?’ So, the Brāhmana went searching for water but when he came back with some, he found her lying dead. Since he loved her dearly he was grief-stricken and began to lament. As he was bewailing his loss, he heard a voice in the air say, ‘If, O, Brāhmana, you are willing to part with half your life, then, the Brāhmani will live again.’
At once the Brāhmana did the prescribed purifying rites and by repeating the words ‘I give life’ three times he parted with half his life. No sooner had he said the three words than the Brāhmani revived.
The pair then drank some water and having eaten some wild fruits continued on their journey. In due course, they reached a certain city and entered a garden of flowers situated at the gates. The Brāhmana said to his wife, ‘Dear lady, you wait here while I go and fetch some food for us.’ Having advised her thus, he left.
Now, in that flower-garden there was a cripple turning a water-wheel and singing divinely as he did so. Listening to his singing, the Brāhmani was smitten with love for him and went up to him saying, ‘Gracious friend, if you do not love me, the sin of slaying a woman will cling to you.’
‘What do you want with a handicapped man like myself?’ asked the cripple.
But she insisted: ‘Not one word more; you must make love to me.’
And the cripple agreed and did so. After her passion was consummated, she told him, ‘Listen, from this moment I am yours for life. With this understanding, Your Honour must now go with us.’
‘So be it,’ said the cripple.
When the Brāhmana returned with some food and started eating with his wife, she said, This cripple is hungry; give him a bit of this food.’
The Brāhmana did so; then his wife suggested; ‘Look you are without a companion and when you go alone to some village or other, I am left without anybody to talk to. So why not take this cripple along with us?’
To this the husband replied, ‘Lady, it is hard enough for me, I find, to carry my own body, what to say of this cripple.’
‘All right, then I shall carry him myself if he sits in a basket, retorted the wife.
Bewildered by her crafty words, the Brāhmana was agreeable to her suggestion and they walked on in this fashion.
One day as they rested close to the mouth of a well, the Brāhmani, with the help of the cripple, gave her sleeping husband a push so that he tumbled into the water. Then picking up the basket with the cripple in it, the woman entered the city where the king’s officers of law, who were in charge of preventing thefts and robberies and seeing to the collection of toll at the gates, were making their rounds. Seeing a woman with a basket on her head, they forcibly seized it and took it into the king’s presence. On opening the basket the king found the cripple.
Presently, the Brāhmani arrived there weeping and wailing, for she had followed close on the heels of the royal officers of law.
‘What is all this?’ demanded the king on seeing her.
And the woman said. ‘This is my husband, my lord, a cripple so harassed by a whole host of his kinsmen that distracted in mind by my love for him, I placed him on my head and was coming to you.’
The king was moved by what he heard; ‘You are like a sister to me,’ he said, ‘I grant you two villages; enjoy all delights with your husband and live happily.’
At this point her husband, the Brāhmana, wh
o by a fortunate turn of fate had been rescued from the well by some holy man, and been wandering around for a while, had finally arrived in the same city. His wicked wife, seeing him, denounced him straight away to the king. ‘Oh great king,’ she cried out, ‘there, he is one of my husband’s kinsmen; he has come here.’
The king immediately ordered the Brāhmana to be put to death. The Brāhmana now interposed with a request, ‘My lord,’ he said, ‘this woman has in her possession something she received from me. If you love justice, then ask her to restore that thing to me first.’
‘Lady,’ said the king, ‘if you have something belonging to this man, return it to him.’
‘But, my lord, I have taken nothing from this man,’ she replied.
‘I gave you half my life, making it yours by uttering thrice the words, “I give life”. Give that back to me,’ said the Brāhmana with determination.
Fearing the king’s anger, the Brāhmani uttered the very same words ‘I give life’, thrice, and instantly dropped dead.
The king, in great astonishment, demanded, ‘What is the meaning of all this?’
The Brāhmana then told the king the whole story as it had happened.
‘This is the reason why I recited those lines to you: “My family I forsook for her…” and the rest of it.’
And Red Face continued, ‘There is yet another tale, my friend, which also points out the moral quite neatly:
(41) What will a man not do
what will he not grant too,
when asked by a woman.
Where those who are not horses, neigh,
there, heads are shaven29 out of season.’
‘Oh ? And what is that tale: tell me,’ said the crocodile. And then Red Face began the tale of Two Henpecked Husbands.
A long time ago there was a great emperor named Delight,30 of great power and prowess who was sole lord of the sea-girdled Earth; whose footstool scintillated with the intermingled rays. radiating from the lustrous gems on the crowns of countless hosts of kneeling princes; whose glory spread clear and dazzling as autumn moonbeams. Now the emperor had a minister named Splendour31 who had complete mastery of the knowledge contained in all the treatises on statecraft.
Once, Splendour’s wife threw a tantrum as the result of a lover’s quarrel and would not even look at him. Splendour, who absolutely doted on his wife, tried his best to please and cajole her in many different ways, but on no account would she relent. In desperation he begged her saying, ‘Fair lady, what can I do to please you, tell me and I shall do it.’
After a great deal of persuasion she deigned to say, ‘Well, if you shave your head completely and then come and fall at my feet. I might cast a gracious glance or two in your direction.’
Poor Splendour did as she wanted and she became pleased with him.
Now, the queen of Emperor Delight also became annoyed with him in much the same manner and however hard he tried to pacify her she would not be pleased. Finally, the emperor pleaded, ‘Gracious Lady,’ he said, ‘I cannot live even an instant without you. See, here I am, falling at your feet to beg your forgiveness.’
The queen replied, ‘If you take a horse’s bit in your mouth and if you let me mount you and make you gallop, and if you neigh like a horse as you are galloping, then I shall become pleased with you.’ The emperor did accordingly.
Next morning Splendour came into the council chamber where the emperor was seated. Seeing him, the emperor asked, ‘Why, good Splendour, why have you had your head shaved when there is no occasion for it?’ To which Splendour replied with these lines:
(42) ‘What will a man not do,
what will he not grant too,
if asked by a woman.
Where those who are not horses, neigh,
there, heads are shaven out of season.’
‘You simpleton! You too are henpecked just like Delight and Splendour were. You tried to find a way of killing me because your wife asked you to; and that fact was revealed to me by your own words, and mark how well the saying puts it:
(43) Parrots and myna birds are caught
and caged through the fault of speaking;
while herons and cranes are not:
Silence leads to success in everything.
‘Then again:
(44) Though the secret was well-guarded
and he presented a horrid sight,
the ass in tiger-skin attired
was killed as soon as he descanted.’
‘Oh! Tell me about it,’ said Hideous Jaws. And then Red Face began the tale of The Ass in tiger-skin.
There was once a washerman called Clean Clothes32 who lived in a certain settlement. And he owned a single donkey.33 For lack of fodder this donkey grew very feeble.
As he roamed in the forest, the washerman once found the skin of a dead tiger. And that started him thinking, ‘Ah! what a piece of good luck. I can wrap this tiger-skin round my poor old donkey and let him loose in the barley fields at night. Taking him to be a tiger the farmers will be afraid to drive him off.’
The washerman carried out his plan and his donkey grazed in the fields and ate barley to his heart’s content. Early in the morning the washerman led the donkey back home. And as time went on he grew so plump that his master found it hard to lead him to the tying-post.
One day, the donkey, while grazing, heard the sound of a she-donkey braying in the distance. The instant he heard that, he too started braying loudly in response. The farmers heard him and talked among themselves: ‘Good heavens! This is a donkey in disguise.’ Realizing the truth, they killed him with stones and arrows and blows from wooden staves.
‘Therefore, I say this: “Though the secret was well-guarded…” and the rest of it.’
Now while the ape was retailing these stories to the crocodile, some water-dwelling creature came up to Hideous Jaws with important information. It said, ‘Hey there! Friend, Hideous Jaws, listen, your wife who had undertaken a vow to fast unto death is gone.’
Stricken to the heart with sorrow the crocodile began to lament, for his wife. ‘Alas! What has come upon me; what an unfortunate person I am! As we have heard:
(45) A house where no mother dwells
or wife whose speech is loving
is no home but a wilderness;
so why not go live in the wilds!
‘So, dear friend, forgive me for I have wronged you somewhat. Having lost my wife I shall now enter the fire.’
Red Face listening to these words of Hideous Jaws, laughed heartily and said, ‘Come, come, my friend. I knew from the beginning that you were henpecked and completely under your wife’s thumb. And right here is the proof. O, you dunderhead. When happiness comes knocking at your door you sit drowned in despair. When a wife like yours dies, it is an occasion to celebrate. Surely you know the wise saying:
(46) A wife whose conduct is vicious,
a wife who is cantankerous,
is no wife but Old Age incarnate,
cruel, horrid, as the learned state.
(47) So, make every effort you can
in this sorry world of man
to shun WOMAN’S very name,
if happiness is your aim.
(48) What’s within them appears not on the tongue;
What’s on the tongue finds no expression;
What is expressed is not acted upon;
Ah! How strange are the ways of WOMAN!
(49) When we have one classic instance before us
of the depravity of women,
why cite others? Without a single qualm
they can slay their own children,
even those they carried in their womb.
(50) To see true affection
where no kindliness is;
to look for softness in a rock’s hardness;
to find sentiment in the insensate…
these are a callow youth’s fancies
pining for nubile girls.’
Then Hideous Jaws commented ruefully; ‘Ah! Y
es, my friend; all this is true. But what can I do now that two calamities have hit me? First, the break up of my home; next, the unfortunate misunderstanding with a dear friend. When one is out of luck such things happen to one. As the verse expresses it so well:
(51) Sure I could boast that I was clever;
but you were doubly clever, you shameless hussy;
yet now you have neither husband nor lover;
so why do you sit and stare vacantly.’
‘Oh? And what is that story?’ asked Red Face. And then Hideous Jaws began the tale of The Unfaithful Wife.
A farmer lived in a certain settlement with his wife. Because her husband was old the farmer’s wife had her thoughts constantly flitting around other men, and could not bear to stay at home. Her mind was forever occupied with her lovers and she went about here and there looking for men. A certain rogue who lived by thievery once saw her. Coming up to her, he said, ‘Fair Lady; my wife is dead; now that I have seen you I am head over heels in love with you. Please grant me love’s supreme treasure.’
The farmer’s wife was delighted and answered, ‘Oh! you handsome gentleman, if that be the case, let me tell you this; my husband has immense wealth and he is so old that he can hardly stir. So this is what I shall do; I shall gather all his wealth, each and everything he has and come to you. We shall go away somewhere together and enjoy all the pleasures of love.’
‘A great idea,’ replied the thief. ‘Why don’t you hasten to this very spot at dawn tomorrow so that we might go to some beautiful city or other where I shall obtain the complete fulfilment of my life in this beautiful world.’
‘Very well,’ said the woman and went home, her face wreathed in beatific smiles.
At night, when her husband was fast asleep the farmer’s wife gathered together all the wealth in the home and went with it at dawn to the appointed meeting place. The rogue making the woman walk ahead of him started in a southerly direction. Gaily conversing with each other they covered some two leagues when they came to a river.
When he saw the river the rogue began reflecting on the situation, ‘Now, what on earth will I do with a middle-aged woman? Besides, I shall be in deep trouble if someone or other suddenly appears coming after her in hot pursuit. I think I had better take all her wealth and be on my way leaving her in the lurch.’