The Hitopadesa (Penguin Classics) Page 9

  Don’t we use the candle’s light

  When the sun has set at night?’

  ‘My good Bossy,’ said Tawny, ‘What is this? You are the son of our Prime Minister. But you have not come here for such a long time because of what some villain may have said. Now, say what you have on your mind.’

  ‘Sire,’ replied Bossy, ‘I wish to ask something. Please tell me. The master is thirsty, but why then does he stand here looking so perplexed without drinking water?’

  Tawny replied: ‘You have spoken well. There was no one worthy of trust to whom I could talk about this secret. But you are trustworthy and so I will tell you. Listen. This forest now harbours some unknown being, and so we must abandon it. That is why I am perplexed. You too must have heard that great, unprecedented sound. Correspondingly, that creature must also be extremely strong.’

  ‘Sire, this is indeed a cause for great concern,’ said Bossy. ‘We too have heard that sound. But which minister will first advise the abandonment of the land and afterwards a battle? In doubts concerning such matters, the utility of servants should be taken into account. For,

  (80) The worth of prowess and of mind

  Of servants, spouse and family,

  And himself too, will each man find

  On the touchstone of calamity.’

  ‘Good sir,’ said the lion, ‘a great fear has gripped me.’

  ‘Otherwise why would you speak to me about giving up the pleasures of kingship and going somewhere else,’ Bossy said to himself. Overtly, he replied, ‘sire, while I live you have nothing to fear. But Rusty and the others should also be reassured as it is difficult to assemble people at a time when trouble must be faced.’

  Bossy and Rusty were then entertained by the king with all the means at his disposal. Both departed after promising to counter any danger. On the way. Rusty said to Bossy, ‘Comrade, how is it that you accepted this lavish hospitality, and promised to remove his fears, without knowing their causes and if they can be countered or not? For, without rendering a service one should never accept a reward from anyone, specially from a king. Look,

  (81) In his goodwill there lies treasure,

  In his effort, victory,

  And death abides in his displeasure:

  All-powerful indeed is he.

  ‘Similarly,

  (82) The king, though young, by no means can

  Be dismissed as no more than man,

  Because a great divinity

  In living human form is he.’

  Bossy smiled and said: ‘Friend, be quiet. I know the cause of his fear. That was only a bull bellowing. Bulls are even our prey, what to say of the lion’s.’

  ‘If that is so,’ said Rusty, ‘then why did you not allay the master’s fears there and then?’

  ‘If the master’s fear had been relieved straightaway,’ replied Bossy, ‘then how could we have obtained this fine hospitality? Furthermore,

  (83) The master, by his servants, never

  Should be rendered free of need.

  If the servant does that, ever,

  Like White Ears he will be indeed.’

  ‘How did that happen?’ asked Rusty. Bossy narrated

  The Cat which became Superfluous

  On the hill called Mount Arbuda in the northern country there lived a lion named Mahavikrama or Mightyvalour. A certain mouse would nibble the fringes of his mane every day as he slept in his mountain cave. Incensed to see his mane being snipped, and unable to catch the mouse which would dive into its burrow, he thought,

  (84) ‘If the enemy is too small,

  By valour to be had at all,

  To slay him one should organize

  A soldier of an equal size.’

  Having considered this, he went to the village and, placing his trust in a cat named Dadhikarṇa or White Ears, he brought it carefully to his cave where he nurtured it on a diet of meat.

  Thereafter, the mouse stopped coming out of its hole for fear of the cat, and the lion slept in peace with his mane intact. Whenever he heard the mouse, he would encourage the cat by giving it an extra-special diet of flesh.

  The mouse was tormented by hunger pangs. It came out at last and was caught and killed by the cat. Never again did the lion hear the sounds of the mouse in the burrow. No more having any use for the cat, he also lost interest in feeding it. Deprived of food. White Ears became feeble and eventually perished.

  ‘It is for this reason that I said that the master should never be made free of need,’ concluded Bossy. He and Rusty then approached Lively. Rusty sat down grandly under a tree, while Bossy went up to Lively, and said: ‘You bull! this is General Rusty who has been appointed by King Tawny to guard the forest. He commands you to come before him immediately, or get out of our forest. Otherwise the consequences will be bad for you. I cannot say what our master will ordain if he is angered.’

  Lively was unfamiliar with local ways. He came forward diffidently and saluted Rusty with an eightfold prostration. As it has been said,

  (85) Intelligence is greater than

  Strength of body, as one can

  See, in its absence, in the fate

  Of elephants led in captive state:

  This the drums do seem to say

  As mahouts beat them on the way.

  Lively asked timidly: ‘General, please tell me what I ought to do.’

  ‘If you hope to stay here in this forest,’ replied Rusty, ‘You must go and make obeisance at the lotus feet of our lord.’

  ‘I will go,’ said Lively, ‘but please give me your parole of safe conduct. For that let Your Honour offer me his right hand.’

  ‘Listen, you bull,’ said Rusty, ‘enough of this suspicion.

  For,

  (86) Krishna did not deign reply

  To curses Ćedi’s king let fly.2

  Lions roar at thunder’s peal,

  Not when jackals start to squeal.

  ‘Further,

  (87) The storm does not uproot the grass

  Softly bent to let it pass.

  On tall trees only does it blow:

  The great their might to equals show.’

  The two then left Lively at a distance, and went up to Tawny. The king looked at them respectfully as they saluted him and sat down.

  ‘Have you seen him?’ asked the king.

  ‘He has been seen, sire,’ said Bossy, ‘he is, as Your Majesty had guessed, indeed immense. He wishes to meet Your Majesty. But he is very powerful, and you should be on guard when you see him. As to the sound, that by itself is not to be feared. As it is said,

  (88) One need not fear a sound alone

  When its cause is still unknown.

  Knowing of a sound the cause,

  The procuress did gain applause.’

  ‘How did that happen?’ asked the king. Bossy narrated

  The Canny Procuress

  There is a town called Brahmapura on the Śrī mountain. It was rumoured that on ogre named Ghaṇtākarea lived in the region of the mountain peak. Once a thief, running away with a large bell, was killed and eaten by a tiger. The bell, which had dropped from his hands, was found by some monkeys who used to ring it all the time.

  The townspeople saw that a man had been devoured, and heard the constant ringing of the bell. Saying that the ogre was angry, and rang the bell as he ate humans, they all fled from the town. But there was a procuress named Karālā, who speculated, ‘This bell rings without any occasion. Is it being rung by monkeys?’ After finding out for herself, she went before the king saying: ‘sire, I will take care of this Ghantākarṇa if some money can be disbursed.’

  The king gave some money to the procuress. She prepared the ritual circle and, having made therein an elaborate display of worshipping Gaṇeśa and other deities, herself went into the forest, carrying fruit which monkeys love.

  She spread out the fruit, and the monkeys fell upon them, abandoning the bell. The procuress took it and returned to the town where she was honoured by everyone.
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  ‘That is why I said that one should not be scared by just a sound,’ remarked Bossy. After the jackal had concluded his story, Lively was conducted and presented to the king, and began to live there happily. One day the lion’s brother, another lion named Stabdhakarṇa or Prick-Ears, came by on a visit. Tawny received him with due courtesy and, having seated him, started to go out to catch some game for his dinner. Lively then said, ‘sire, where are the remains of the deer which were killed today?’

  ‘Bossy and Rusty would know,’ said the king.

  ‘Do you know if anything is left or not?’ asked Lively. The lion reflected. ‘There isn’t,’ he said.

  ‘How could they have consumed so much meat?’ asked Lively.

  ‘It may have been eaten, or given away, or gone bad,’ observed the king. ‘This is what happens every day.’

  ‘How can this be done without Your Majesty’s knowledge?’ cried Lively.

  ‘Well,’ said the king, ‘It is being done without my knowledge.’

  ‘This is not proper,’ Lively then remarked. ‘As it is said,

  (89) The master’s work should not be done,

  Even trivial, on one’s own

  Without informing him before;

  Unless it be a crisis sore

  Which needs immediate countering

  In the interest of the king.

  ‘Further,

  (90) “What’s but a moment’s loss”, who says—

  His are very foolish ways.

  And one who scorns the poor farthing

  Will stay in poverty, O King.

  The minister must be like a pot

  Which little yields, but holds a lot.

  (91) That minister is the best,

  Who daily swells the treasure chest

  Even with a single pie;3

  For the king’s life does not lie

  In his breath, as one can see,

  But rather in his treasury.

  (92) Man reaches not an honoured station

  Just because of clan tradition.

  Even his own wife will spurn

  Him, should he a pauper turn.

  The others do not us concern.

  ‘And these are the principal defects in governing,

  (93) In finance the evils are:

  Excesses in expenditure

  And lack of proper inspection;

  Injustices in tax collection;

  Fraud, which is like robbery;

  And a remote authority.

  ‘For,

  (94) Of income, never taking measure,

  Quick in spending at his pleasure,

  Man will but face penury,

  Though rich as the god of wealth he be.’

  ‘Listen, brother,’ said Prick-Ears, ‘these two, Bossy and Rusty, have for long been your servants in charge of the duties of war and peace. They should never be appointed in charge of finance. I will also tell you what little I have heard on the subject of making appointments.

  (95) Priests, or warriors, or your kin,

  Should never be considered in

  Appointments to the treasury.

  Of these, the first category,

  Even if the revenue

  Has been realized full and true,

  Do not yield it, even though

  Tortures they may undergo.

  (96) The warrior, when appointed to

  The treasury, waves his sword at you;

  While kinsmen all the money seize,

  Saying it is the family’s.

  (97) An officer in service long

  Turns brazen, although in the wrong;

  He holds his master in disdain;

  His actions nothing can restrain.

  (98) Holding office, if there’s one

  Appointed for past favours done,

  He admits not his own mistakes,

  But credit for his favours takes,

  And plunders everyone.

  (99) If one is a minister made,

  Who as a child with you had played,

  Then long acquaintance, certainly,

  Will make him act cavalierly,

  From which he is bound to bring

  Himself to think he is the king.

  (100) The wicked, who are patient too,

  Can indeed cause calamity:

  Śakatāra and Śakuni4 do

  Give instance of this, Majesty.

  (101) Wealth will always, in the end,

  Man to obduracy bind.

  This is what the seers contend:

  Opulence perverts the mind.

  (102) Not collecting monies due,

  Embezzlement of revenue,

  Pliancy and disinterest,

  Unmindfulness of what is best,

  And love of fleshly pleasures, are

  Faults which do ministers mar.

  (103) The king must stratagems devise

  To get at revenue that lies

  With his officers, and always

  Scrutinize their working ways,

  Granting honours and citations,

  Or moving them to other stations.

  (104) In most cases the functionary

  Like a blister tends to be:

  From the top unless you squeeze,

  What’s inside it won’t release.

  (105) Officers who have made a pile—

  The king should press them all the while.

  With just one wring you cannot get

  Much water from a towel wet.

  ‘One should know all this, and put it into practice depending on the occasion.’

  ‘I agree,’ said Tawny, ‘but these two never do what I tell them.’

  ‘That is wholly improper,’ retorted Prick-Ears, ‘for,

  (106) Those who the monarch disobey,

  Never to be spared are they,

  His own children though they be.

  Otherwise how will one see

  The difference between a king

  In portraits, and the real thing?

  ‘Further,

  (107) The dull ruin their reputation,

  The ill-natured their friendly ties,

  Senseless men, the clan tradition,

  The greedy ones, fair dharma’s prize,

  Those prone to vice, the fruit of learning,

  The miserly, their happiness,

  And kings with deputies undiscening,

  Ruin their sovereignty, no less.

  ‘And, specially,

  (108) From bandits, officers, foreign foes,

  From favourites who to him are close,

  And from his own cupidity,

  The king must guard his citizenry:

  Like a father he should be.

  ‘So, brother, follow my advice always. I too have dealt with such affairs. This Lively is a vegetarian. Put him in charge of your treasury.’

  Arrangements were made in accordance with Prick-Ears’ advice. Thence onwards Tawny and Lively stopped associating with the others and passed their time in great amity. Bossy and Rusty saw a slackening in the provision of food, even for retainers, and consulted one another. ‘Friend,’ Bossy said to Rusty, ‘what should be done? This problem is our own creation. There is hardly any point in complaining about one’s own mistakes. As it has been said:

  (109) “Svarņa Rekhā I did touch”;

  The procuress herself got bound;

  The hermit craved for gems too much:

  On ourselves do our faults redound.’

  ‘How did that happen?’ asked Rusty. Bossy related

  Our Faults redound on Us

  The city of Kanćhanapura was ruled by a king named Vīra Vikrama. His magistrate was once taking a certain barber to the execution ground when an itinerant ascetic named Kandarpa Ketu, who was accompanied by another hermit, caught hold of the hem of his garment and cried out: ‘He is not to be executed!’

  ‘Why shouldn’t he be executed?’ asked the royal officers. ‘Listen,’ replied the ascetic, and he proceeded to recite the verse “Svarṇa R
ekhā I did touch”… and the rest. ‘How did that happen?’ asked the officers.

  ‘My name is Kandarpa Ketu,’ the ascetic said, ‘and I am the son of Jīmūta Ketu, the king of Simhala island. Once, when I was at a pleasure park, I heard from a seafaring trader that on every fourteenth day a wish-fulfilling tree appeared in the middle of the ocean. Beneath it was a bed sparkling with gems, on which was to be seen a maiden like the goddess Lakshmī herself, adorned with all kinds of ornaments and playing upon a lute.

  ‘Taking the merchant sailor, I went there on a ship, and saw the girl on the divan in the water, as had been described. Charmed by her loveliness, I dived in after her and found myself in a city of gold. There I saw her on the divan in a golden palace, with demi-goddesses in attendance. She too saw me from a distance, and sent a companion who spoke to me respectfully.

  ‘On my asking the companion, she told me that this was the daughter of Kandarpa Keli, the paramount ruler of the demi-gods called Vidyādhara. Ratna Manjarī was her name. She had vowed that the man who reached the city of gold and saw her there with his own eyes would marry her, even if her father was not present. The companion assured me that this was the maiden’s intention, and advised me to marry her by the rule of mutual consent.

  ‘So I married her by the rite of mutual consent,5 and stayed there, enjoying myself with her. Once, when we were alone, she told me, “Lord, everything here is for you to enjoy as you will. But this likeness of the demi-goddess named Svarṇa Rekhā you should never touch.” My curiosity was aroused and afterwards I touched Svarṇa Rekhā with my hand. Though she was only an image, she struck me with her lotus-like foot and I fell down and found myself in my own country.

  ‘Deeply distressed, I became a wandering ascetic. I roamed all over the land and at last came to this city. Here I slept at the house of a cowherd yesterday.

  ‘The cowherd came home in the evening from his friend’s tavern, and discovered his wife in surreptitious discussion with a procuress. He thrashed his spouse and went to sleep after tying her to a pillar. At midnight the procuress, who is married to this barber, came back to the cowherd’s wife and told her, “That gentleman is burning with desire for you. He has been struck by Kāma’s arrow, and looks like one about to die. Seeing him in that condition has so upset me that I have come to help you. I will bind myself in your place and stay here. You go and satisfy him; but come back quickly.’