by Visnu Sarma
With this idea in his mind he addressed the woman: ‘My dearest one, look, this great river is difficult to cross. So, why don’t I first take all the wealth safely across, and then come back for you. That way I have only you to ferry across and that I can do easily enough carrying you on my back in comfort.’
‘Oh, my handsome lover, do what you think is best,’ said the besotted woman.
When she had thus agreed to his plan, the rogue took hold of all her wealth, to the last coin and then he said again, ‘Dearest, perhaps you should take off both your upper and lower garments and hand them over to me so that when I am carrying you across you would feel perfectly at ease, unencumbered, in the waters of the river.’
The foolish woman did as he said, handing over both her garments to the rogue who took off with her wealth and clothes and headed towards the particular place he already had in mind.
As for the farmer’s wife, she sat utterly woebegone on the river bank, with both hands clutching at her throat.
As she sat like this, there came along a vixen carrying a chunk of raw meat. As she stopped and looked around, the vixen saw a huge fish leap out of the river and lie stranded on the river bank. Dropping the chunk of meat the vixen darted towards the fish. But before she could grab it a kite swooped down from the sky, seized the gobbet of meat and flew up again.
The fish too seeing the vixen coming towards it somehow managed to struggle back into the river.
As the vixen, disappointed because all her efforts had come to nothing, gazed up disconsolately at the kite, the farmer’s wife addressed her, smiling mockingly:
(52) ‘O vixen, little vixen, bereft
of both fish and flesh
what are you staring at?
The kite has got your lump of flesh,
the fish is back in the water.’
The vixen, when she heard this and knowing full well that the woman had lost her wealth, husband and lover, jeered at her, taunting her with these words:
(53) ‘Whatever cleverness I could boast of
of that you had double, you wanton!
but now, without husband, without lover,
you sit naked34 beside the river.’
As Hideous Jaws was telling the ape this tale, there came another water-creature, with yet another bit of distressing news: ‘Oh, friend, listen; your home has been occupied by another huge crocodile.’
Whereupon the crocodile became extremely despondent and began to ponder over ways and means of kicking the intruder out of his home.
‘O, misery upon misery,’ he lamented, ‘how I am kicked around by a cruel fate; mark:
(54) A friend has turned unfriendly:
a dearly-loved wife is dead:
my home too is invaded
what else will happen to me?
‘How true is the well-known maxim: misfortunes never come singly. What should I do now? Should I fight this intruder? Or should I call out to him in gentle words of conciliation and request him to leave my house? Or, should I try intrigue? Or resort to offering him a bribe? Let me ask my simian friend, Red Face, for some good advice. For we are told:
(55) Whatever be your task first ask
those whom you should ask:
those with experience who have
your best interests at heart:
no obstacle will then cross your path.’
Having mulled over the problem, Hideous Jaws again addressed Red Face who was sitting on the tree. ‘Ah! My friend,’ said he, ‘look at me: my luck is at an all-time low; for I have lost even my house to another powerful crocodile. So now I turn to you for advice; please tell me what I should do. Should I resort to conciliation, or to one of the other three expedients of policy?’35
Red Face retorted in a huff, ‘You ungrateful wretch! I have told you already that I wish to have nothing to do with you; then why come to me again? I would not care to offer good advice to a fool like you. The old tale points out the moral quite plainly:
(56) Good advice should not be provided
to just anyone you meet; See!
The foolish monkey dispossessed
her who had built her home cozy.’
‘Oh! How did that happen? Tell me,’ insisted the crocodile. And Red Face then began the tale of The Officious Sparrow.
In a certain forest a pair of sparrows lived in a nest they had built on the branch of a tree. One chilly day in the month of February, a monkey who had been caught in an unseasonable hailstorm came to the foot of that tree, his body trembling like a leaf in the lightest breeze. As he sat crouched with teeth making music like the plucked strings of a lute, and knees and feet, arms and hands tightly locked, he looked the very picture of misery.
The hen-sparrow watching him, spoke out of compassion:
(57) ‘With hands and feet provided
you have a human form, almost;
by wind and cold buffeted
why don’t you build a house, you fool?’
The monkey listened to her and thought to himself: ‘Ah! Well: that is how the world is: full of folks who exude smugness. What a high opinion of herself does this miserable little bird have! These lines express it admirably:
(58) Who on earth does not have his share
of a sense of self-importance!
The lapwing lies with legs upstretched
to prop a falling sky!’
Thereupon he told the little hen-sparrow:
(59) ‘Oh! Needlebeak! You ill-bred tart!
You think yourself mighty smart!
Hold your tongue, you slut… or else,
I shall make you homeless.’
Though the monkey thus expressly forbade her from doing so, the sparrow would not desist but repeatedly offered him her good advice on building a house. Finally, the monkey was so exasperated that he dashed up the tree and broke the nest of the sparrows into smithereens.
‘This is why I said before, “Advice should not be thrown away…” and so on,’ concluded Red Face.
Having heard what Red Face said, the crocodile would still not take no for an answer. ‘Ah! My friend: I am guilty of wrongdoing, I know. Still, remembering our past friendship, please give me some good advice.’
But Red Face was adamant; he answered resolutely, ‘Listen. I will not give one word of advice, believe me. Because you were planning to plunge me in mid-ocean, obeying your wife. Granting you loved your wife dearly, was that any reason to drown friends, kin and others in the deep ocean? Just because she asked you to? Eh?’
Hideous Jaws replied, ‘All that you say is true, my friend. But you are well aware of the maxim that says, “Seven steps make friendship”.36 Consider this, and give me a bit of advice. You also know this saying:
(60) Men who offer sage counsel
wishing others well,
will never suffer pain and sorrow
in this world or in the other.
‘Though I did you great wrong, my friend, be gracious and do me the favour of counselling me. As we are told:
(61) What is there so commendable
in returning good for good;
the virtuous seek those just and noble
who for ill return good.’
Red Face was touched by these words and he relented, ‘Well, my good fellow, perhaps there is something in what you say. You had better go and fight this fellow. The wise have said that a person succeeds by:
(62) Humbling37 himself before the noble,
intriguing against the valiant,
bestowing trifling gifts to lackeys
and fighting boldly with equals,
as the tale tells it.’
‘How does the tale tell it?’ asked the crocodile. And Red Face, the ape, then began the tale of The Smart Jackal.
Once in the deep woods there lived a jackal named Smart Aleck. One day he found an elephant that had died from natural causes lying in a part of the woodland. He walked right round the animal but found himself unable to bite through the thick hide and get at the flesh.
At this moment, a lion who had been roaming around in the woods appeared there. Seeing the lion, the jackal immediately bent low till the crown of his head touched the dust on the ground, clasped the lion’s lotus-claws and spoke with great humility: ‘My lord, here I am, serving as your sentry and standing guard over this elephant. Let His Majesty now partake of this food.’
‘Hey, fellow,’ roared the lion with a lordly air, ‘I never eat what has been killed by another. So, here, take it, for I am pleased to make a gift of this animal to you.’
‘Indeed, my lord,’ said Smart Aleck beaming with joy, ‘the magnanimity shown by His Majesty towards his servants is most commendable.’
When the lion was gone, there came along a tiger. On seeing him, Smart Aleck did some quick thinking. ‘True, I got rid of one low-down villain by making deep obeisance to him. Now, how shall I deal with this second rascal, for he is valiant to be sure, who can be tackled only through cunning manipulation; intrigue is the only right approach here. For we have heard this:
(63) Where gentle persuasion and offers of gifts
are of no avail
in making someone do your will,
try intrigue; that should not fail.
‘And to tell the truth, who in the world is not caught by intrigue? As we are well aware:
(64) Even a pearl flawless, whole, inviolate,
a compact and exquisite, lustrous globe,
becomes vulnerable to bondage
once it is pierced through the heart.’38
Having thought this over, Smart Aleck faced the tiger with his neck thrust out a bit, acting scared. ‘O, Uncle, how could you venture like this into the jaws of death! For this elephant was slain by a lion who has just this minute gone-down to the river for a bath having charged me with the task of standing guard over his kill. And further, as he was leaving, he admonished: me strictly, thus: “Listen, if any tiger should come by, you had better slip away quietly and inform me; do you hear? For I am determined to clear these woods of all tigers, the reason being that once after I had killed an elephant and left it unguarded, a tiger sneaked up and helped himself to its meat, and I had the leavings. From that day I have sworn vengeance against tigers.”’
The tiger was terrified hearing these ominous words. ‘O, dear nephew,’ he whimpered, ‘make me a gift of my life. Even if the lion takes ever so long, please do not say a word about me to him.’
Having made this request the tiger ran for his life.
No sooner had the tiger disappeared than a leopard arrived there.
‘Well, well,’ chuckled Smart Aleck. ‘If it is not our friend the spotted leopard arriving in good time! And doesn’t he have powerful teeth! Just the person to cut into this elephant-hide!’
Smart Aleck called out to the leopard, ‘Come, come here, dear nephew. Oh, it has been a long time since we met; where have you been? And why are you looking so famished? Come and be my guest. You know the maxim: “A guest is one who arrives at the right moment.” Here lies an elephant slain by a lion; and here am I, duly appointed to guard it. Be that as it may, so long as the lion does not get back, you are welcome to a square meal of elephant-meat and then run.’
The leopard however demurred. ‘As things stand, Uncle, this meat is not my cup of tea, I am afraid. As you are well aware of that other maxim:
(65) If a fellow lives, he lives to see
a hundred happy occasions, surely.
‘It is best to eat just what one can well digest. Therefore I had better be on my way.’
‘Oh, come, come, you faint-hearted fellow! Where’s your courage? Eat. I am here to warn you when the lion is still at some distance.’
Tempted, the leopard followed Smart Aleck’s suggestion and started to bite through the elephant-hide. But no sooner had he made a deep cut than Smart Aleck cried out, ‘Go, oh, go quickly, dear nephew; here comes the lion.’ At these words, the leopard took off and disappeared.
Now, as Smart Aleck began eating the flesh of the elephant, through the gash the leopard had made there came another jackal and he seemed to be in a terrible rage. Smart Aleck quickly sized him up and knew him to be his equal whose strength he could gauge correctly. Muttering these lines:
(66) ‘Fall flat on your face
before your superior:
employ devious ways
against the valiant;
throw a crumb or two
to a fawning menial
but… show your mettle
to your equal….’
Smart Aleck crashed headlong into the intruder and tore at him with his fangs scattering his flesh and bones in all directions.
Having done this he happily enjoyed the elephant-meat for a long, long time.
‘In the same way, you too should fight your foe who is one of your kind: overcome him and scatter his limbs to the far horizon. If you do not do that, he will put down deep roots and end up destroying you,’ concluded Red Face. Then he added. ‘My friend, you know the saying:
(67) From cows we expect sustenance,
and from Brāhmanas penance;
frailty one expects from women
and cause for alarm from kinsmen.
‘There is another saying too on this score:
(68) Fine foods in plenty
and in great variety
you may eat when you go abroad;
and in the cities
the sweet young ladies
are easygoing, really,
in a foreign land;
but there’s just one thing wrong
in your foreign land
your kith and kin who live abroad
hate your guts quite sincerely.’
‘What you say sounds quite intriguing; tell me more,’ said the crocodile. And then Red Face began the tale of The Dog who went abroad.
There was once a dog named Spotty39 who lived in a certain settlement which at one time suffered a prolonged famine. As food became scarce, all the dogs and other animals were dying and their families were becoming extinct. Afraid of what might happen, Spotty, already drawn and pinched by hunger, decided to go abroad. In a certain city in the foreign land he went to, he discovered a house where the lady of the house was careless and easygoing.40 So Spotty started going in there regularly and each day he ate to his heart’s content enjoying a variety of fine foods, dainties and the like until he was replete with satisfaction. But, as he came out of the house he was surrounded by a number of powerful dogs, all puffed up with pride, who came from all sides, fell upon him and tore at his limbs with their fangs.
After a while when this became too much, Spotty began to do some serious thinking. ‘This is just a bit much,’ he told himself. ‘It is better to live in one’s own land; there might be a famine raging there, but at least one lives in peace. Nobody comes and fights you. I had better return to my own city.’ So, Spotty made up his mind to return home.
Seeing him come home from abroad, his kinsmen and friends crowded around him plying him with questions. ‘Hi, Spotty. What was it like? What kind of land was it? What were the people like? What was the food like; tell us; tell us every thing….’ and so on.
And poor Spotty replied, ‘What can I say about that land? Except this:
(69) Fine foods in plenty
and a great variety
I found when I went abroad:
and in the cities
the sweet young ladies
are easygoing, really;
but there’s just one thing wrong
in your foreign land;
your kith and kin who live abroad
hate your guts quite sincerely.’
The crocodile, Hideous Jaws, having listened attentively to the advice given by Red Face, resolved to fight and die if need be. Bidding farewell to his friend, the ape, he returned to his own house where he fought with the intruder who had taken forcible possession of it. Pinning his faith on his own resolute valour, Hideous Jaws killed the intruding crocodile and regained his residence
. And he lived in it happily for many, many years.
As it is said with admirable wisdom:
(70) What use is wealth acquired
without manly effort
and enjoyed in idleness?
Even an antelope enjoys its fill of grass
that fate drops into its lap.
Now here ends Book Four named Loss of Gains of which this was the opening verse:
(71) He who foolishly lets himself be wheedled
into parting with his gains
is a dolt thoroughly bamboozled,
like the Crocodile by the Ape.
BOOK V
Rash Deeds
Now here begins the fifth book entitled Rash Deeds; and this is its opening verse:
(1) Let no man undertake a deed
ill-conceived and ill-considered,
ill-examined and ill-done
as the barber was guilty of.
And Viṣṇu Śarma began the tale of The Barber who slaughtered the Monks.
In the southern land flourished a city named Trumpet Flowers1 where lived a merchant prince named Precious Gems.2 Though he led a life devoted to the pursuit of the four existential aims, Virtue, Wealth, Love and Salvation, somehow through the cruel play of Fate, he lost his fortune. The loss of material wealth led to a series of humiliations and he was plunged into deep despondency as a result.
One night as he lay awake thinking, ‘Curse upon this cruel poverty,’ he told himself; ‘and how true are these verses:
(2) Virtue, purity of conduct, forbearance,
kindliness, sweetness of disposition, noble birth,
what are all these worth?
They lose their lustre when a man loses his wealth.
(3) Self-esteem, true pride, judgement and learning
wit, social graces and understanding:
all seem to vanish precipitately
when a man loses power and authority.