The Hitopadesa (Penguin Classics) Page 16

  ‘Let us first make sure of this once again,’ the swans replied. ‘In the morning we will do whatever is appropriate.’

  ‘No,’ said the tortoise, ‘I see danger in this. As it has been stated,

  (5) The planner for contingency,

  The thinker with alacrity,

  Both did live most happily;

  But one who would say: “What will be

  Will be,” was ruined utterly.’

  ‘How did that happen?’ the two swans asked. The tortoise narrated

  The Three Fish

  In the old days, when fishermen had come similarly to this very lake, the matter was discussed by three fish. One of them was named Anāgata Vidhātā or Contingency Planner. He said, “As for myself, I will go to another lake,” and he went away accordingly. Another fish named Pratyutpannamati or Quick-wit said, “Where should I go, when there is no knowing what may happen. So, when the time comes, I will do whatever is appropriate. As it is said,

  (6) The intelligent man is he

  Who surmounts calamity

  Even as it comes to be,

  Just as the merchant’s wife, so wise,

  Made sure he would not recognize

  Her lover, caught before his eyes.”

  “How did that happen?” asked the third fish, Yadbhavishya or Fatalist. Quick-wit narrated

  The Quick-witted Wife

  In Vikramapura there was a merchant named Samudra Datta. His wife Ratnaprabhā had taken one of his servants as her lover. For,

  (7) To womenfolk no man is dear

  Nor displeasing, it is true.

  Like cattle grazing forests bare,

  They ever seek new grass to chew1.

  Once Samudra Datta caught Ratnaprabhā kissing the servant on the mouth. But the strumpet quickly went up to her husband, and said, ‘Lord, this servant is much too fond off luxuries. He steals and eats our camphor. I have discovered this by smelling his mouth.’ As it is said,

  (8) Women do eat twice as much

  As men, in scriptures it is said;

  Their intelligence is four times such

  As man can have inside his head;

  Their industry is six times more,

  And eightfold is their passion’s score.2

  The servant was appalled on hearing Ratnaprabhā. ‘How can any servant stay in the house of a master with such a wife,’ he said, ‘where the mistress wants to smell the servant’s mouth every minute?’ So he got up and walked out. The good merchant was able to retain him only after much effort and persuasion.

  “That is why I talked about the intelligent person overcoming calamities as they occur,” said Quick-wit. But Fatalist observed,

  (9) “What will not, will never be,

  What will, must come to pass for sure.

  For every care this remedy;

  Why not drink, and fret no more?”3

  When Quick-wit was caught in the net next morning, he lay still as if he were dead. On being taken out of the net, he jumped as hard as he could and dived into deep water. As for Fatalist, he was caught by the fishermen and killed.

  ‘That is why I talked about the Contingency Planner and the others,’ said the tortoise. ‘Therefore, do something so that I may get to another lake today itself.’

  ‘You will certainly be safe if you go to another lake,’ said the swans, ‘but how will you travel on land?’

  ‘Contrive some method so that I may go with your honors by the aerial route,’ the tortoise replied. ‘How is that possible?’ asked the swans. He said, ‘I can hang by my mouth from a piece of wood you both hold up with your beaks. With the power of your wings I too will thus be able to go without difficulty.’

  ‘This is a possible solution,’ the swans said, ‘but,

  (10) When of solutions think the wise,

  On problems too they meditate—

  Unlike the crane, before whose eyes.

  The mongooses his children ate.’

  ‘How did that happen?’ the tortoise asked. The swans narrated

  The Short-sighted Crane

  There is a mountain called Gṛddhakūta in the northern country. Some cranes lived there on a fig tree by the side of the river Airavatī. In a burrow beneath the tree lived a serpent who was in the habit of eating the cranes’ young children. On hearing the lamentations of the grief-stricken parents, another crane said, “You should do the following. Get some fish and lay them out in a line, one by one, from the place where the mongooses live, upto this serpent’s burrow. The mongooses will then come forward, attracted by the food. They are bound to see the snake, and to kill him because of the natural enmity between the two.”

  This was done, with the expected outcome. But the mongooses heard the chirping of the young cranes in the tree, and they climbed up and devoured them too.

  ‘That is why we talked about thinking solutions through,’ said the swans. ‘When people see you being carried by us, they will certainly make comments. If you give any reply on hearing them, that will be your end. Therefore, all things considered, you should just stay here.’

  ‘Am I a fool?’ the tortoise exclaimed. ‘I will not speak at all!’ So they proceeded as planned.

  All the cowherds saw the tortoise being carried in the air and ran shouting after him. ‘If this tortoise falls down,’ cried one, ‘he should be cooked and eaten here itself.’ Another said, ‘He should be roasted and eaten here.’ ‘He should be taken home, and then consumed,’ said yet another.

  The tortoise became extremely angry on hearing this callous talk. Forgetting the earlier instructions, he cried out, ‘Dust is what you all will eat!’ And even as he spoke, he dropped down and was killed by the cowherds.

  ‘That is why I spoke about heeding the words of well-meaning friends,’ said the goose. Meanwhile the crane, who had been sent out as a spy, came there and said, ‘Sire, I had pointed out at the very beginning that the fort should be kept under surveillance all the time. This you did not do. The results of that neglect are now before us. Setting fire to the fort was the handiwork of the crow Cloudcolour who had been assigned to do this by the vulture.’

  (11) The king said with a sigh:

  In enemies one who puts his trust,

  Because they act affectionately,

  Or do him favours when they must,

  Is like one sleeping on a tree:

  Both will have a mighty fall

  Before they can wake up at all.’

  The spy continued, ‘When Cloudcolour went away from here after setting fire to the fort. Dapple was greatly gratified. “Let this Cloudcolour be anointed here itself as the king of Karpūra island,” he declared. “As it is said:

  (12) A servant’s work do not ignore,

  Specially when he’s done his chore.

  Hearten him with gifts and praise

  In thought and speech, and in your gaze.” ’

  ‘And what happened then?’ the goose asked. ‘Then,’ continued the spy, ‘the chief minister, the vulture, said, “Sire, this will not be appropriate. Give him some other reward. For,

  (13) It’s like giving good advice

  To one who cannot understand,

  Or pounding husks which have no rice,

  Or pissing on a heap of sand.

  No durable result will show,

  O King, by favours to the low.

  “Furthermore, a base person should never be appointed to an office meant for the noble. As it is said,

  (14) When high office the base obtain,

  They wish to get their master slain,

  As the mouse with tiger’s state,

  Tried the sage to obliterate.”

  “How did that happen?” Dapple asked. The minister narrated

  The Hermit and the Mouse

  In the hermitage of the great sage Gautama there was a hermit named Mahātapa. He happened to find a baby mouse which had fallen near the hermitage from the clutches of a crow. Compassionate by nature, he began to nurture the mouse with grains of wild
rice.

  Now a cat ran after the mouse in order to eat it, and the mouse jumped into the hermit’s lap on seeing the cat. ‘Mouse,’ the holy man then ordained, ‘become a cat.’

  The cat fled on seeing a dog. ‘You are scared of the dog?’ said the hermit. ‘Then become a dog yourself.’ But the dog was afraid of a tiger, and so the hermit turned it too into a tiger.

  Even though it was now a tiger, the hermit did not regard the creature as any more than a mouse. On seeing him with the tiger, all the people would also say, “This hermit changed a mouse into a tiger.” The tiger was greatly vexed on hearing this talk. ‘As long as this hermit lives,’ he said to himself, ‘this unbecoming account of my origin will also continue to be current.’ Thinking thus, he set off to kill the hermit. But the latter got to know this and, decreeing, ‘Become a mouse once again,’ he turned the tiger back into a mouse.

  “This is why I spoke about base people obtaining high office,” said the minister. “Furthermore, do not think that this is easy to do. Listen,

  (15) On many fish a crane did feast,

  The great, the middling, and the least,

  Till extreme greed became the cause

  Of his demise in some crab’s claws.”

  “How did that happen?” asked Dapple. The minister narrated

  The Crane and the Crab

  In the Mālava land there is a lake called Padmagarbha. Once an old and decrepit crane stood there, looking extremely dejected. He was seen by a crab who asked, ‘Why does Your Honour stand here without looking for any food?’

  ‘Listen, good sir,’ said the crane, ‘fish are what I live on. But the news that I have heard in the city is that fishermen will come and kill them all for sure. So my death too is imminent enough with the disappearance of my natural food. Having realized this, I am not even thinking of eating.’

  The fish were listening. ‘At this time it seems that even he may be able to help us,’ they considered. ‘Let us ask him what we should do. As it is said,

  (16) Join the helpful enemy,

  Not friends who do you injury.

  For help or hindrance is the cue

  By which you know who’s really who.

  ‘O crane!’ the fish then cried, ‘is there any way in which we can be saved in this situation?’

  ‘There is a way,’ the crane replied. ‘It is to take refuge in another lake. I can take you there, one by one.’

  ‘Very well, then,’ said the fish. The crane thereafter carried the fish away one by one, and devoured them. In due time the crab also asked him, ‘O crane, take me there too.’

  The crane coveted crab flesh which he had never tasted before. He carried the crab with care and put him down at a particular place. Seeing it covered with fish bones, the crab began to worry. ‘Alas, I am done for, ill fated that I am! Very well. Now I must do what the occasion demands. For,

  (17) Danger one should always dread4

  As long as it is far away.

  But once it is upon your head—

  Strike a blow as heroes may.

  ‘Furthermore,

  (18) When from assailants to withdraw

  Useless does the wise man see,

  He goes to battle ready for

  Death beside the enemy.

  ‘Further,

  (19) When fighting, one alive could stay,

  But not to fight makes ruin sure.

  Then, as all the sages say,

  It is surely time for war.’

  Deliberating thus, the crab cut off the crane’s neck and killed him.

  “That is why I spoke about the crane eating all the fish,” the minister remarked. But King Dapple said again, “Minister, just listen to me. I have thought about this. If Cloudcolour is installed as the king in Karpūra island, he will send us the best of all the things that are to be found there. We can then live in great luxury on the Vindhyā mountain.”

  “Sire,” Farsighted said with a smile,

  (20) “One who gives himself to glee,

  With thought of something yet to be—

  Ridicule is his certain lot,

  Like the priest who broke the pot.”

  “How did that happen?” asked the king. The minister narrated

  The Priest who fantasized

  In the town of Devīkota there was a priest named Deva Śarmā. He was presented with an earthenware pot full of barley flour on the sacred occasion when the sun transits the sign of Aries. Troubled by the hot weather, he went with his pot to a potter’s shed full of other vessels, and lay down in a corner there. Then, with a stick in his hand to guard the flour, he began to think:

  ‘If I sell this pot of flour, I will get ten cowrie coins. With them I will buy pots and pitchers here itself and, selling them again, increase my money many times over. With that I will buy and sell betel nuts, garments and other articles, and earn a fortune of hundreds of thousands. Then I will marry four wives. I will love the youngest and prettiest one among them most of all, and when the others become jealous and quarrel with her, I will get angry and beat them thus with the stick.’

  Speaking to himself in this way, he hurled the stick and smashed his pot of flour. Many other pots also got broken. The potter arrived on hearing the noise, and saw the state of his vessels. He abused the priest roundly, and threw him out of his shed.

  “That is why I referred to thinking something yet to be,” said the minister. The king then took the vulture aside and said, “Please advise me, Father. What should be done?” The vulture said:

  (21) “When kings or elephants go astray,

  Filled with pride, with rut inflamed,

  It is those who guide their way

  Who are certain to be blamed.

  “Listen, sire. Was the fortress captured by the arrogance of our army, or by a plan put into effect by Your Majesty’s prowess?”

  “It was Your Honour’s plan,” said the king.

  “If my advice is to be taken,” the vulture continued, “then let us go back to our own country. We are on foreign soil. If war is resumed with an adversary of equal strength, and the rains set in, even returning home will be difficult for us. We should make peace, both for the sake of our welfare as well as our prestige, and go. We have already won the glory of capturing the fortress. So, this is my advice. For,

  (22) One who fears not to ignore

  His master’s piques or sympathies

  But, placing duty to the fore,

  Will speak truths that may not please:

  By him alone, it’s clear to see,

  A king is aided properly.

  (23) “As Bṛhaspati5 himself did say:

  ‘One should any doubt avoid

  That in a war both parties may

  Sometimes together get destroyed.’

  “Further,

  (24) Which person, who is not a fool,

  Will stake himself, his kingly rule,

  His allies, arms, and reputation

  Upon the dubious oscillation

  Of the balance, never sure,

  Which is what indeed is war?

  “Furthermore,

  (25) One should look for peaceful ties

  With even those of equal6 size,

  For victory is never sure

  In the grim contest of war.

  Were not Sunda and Upasunda

  Peers, yet slain by one another?”

  “How did that happen?” the king asked. The minister narrated

  The Two Ogres

  Once upon a time there were two ogres named Sunda and Upasunda, who were brothers. They desired sovereignty over all the three worlds, and for this they prayed for long to the moon-crested god, subjecting themselves to great physical torment. The god was at last satisfied, and asked them to choose a boon.

  Meanwhile the two brothers had been possessed by Sarasvatī, the goddess of speech, who made them ask Śiva for something quite different from what they had wished to request. ‘Lord, if you are pleased with both of us,’ they said, ‘t
hen give us your beloved consort, the lady Pārvatī.’

  The god was incensed. But since it was imperative that a boon once promised should be granted, he handed Pārvatī over to the two dolts. Both coveted her for her beauty and grace, and lusted for her in their hearts. But sin is darkness, and the two ogres, who could destroy the world, began to quarrel, each saying, ‘She is mine.’

  At last the two agreed that they should consult a mediator. The same god then appeared in the guise of an old priest and stood before them. ‘We have obtained her by our own prowess,’ they asked the priest, ‘to which of us two does she belong?’ The priest replied:

  (26) ‘A priest is reckoned to be blest

  When his wisdom is the best;

  A warrior when he has great power;

  A merchant, when of wealth a tower;

  And a servant blest will be

  By service to the other three.

  ‘Now both of you follow the dharma of warriors,’ the priest continued, ‘so your duty is to fight.’

  ‘He is right!’ the two brothers exclaimed on hearing the priest. They were both of equal strength. Striking one another at the same time, they destroyed themselves simultaneously.

  “That is why I spoke about seeking peace with even those who are of equal power,” said the vulture. “Why did not Your Honour say this earlier?” the king asked. “Did Your Majesty listen in full to what I said?” the minister responded. “Even then, it was not on my advice that this war commenced. Goldegg has qualities which fit him to be an ally, not an adversary. As it is said,