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SUNITY SUNITY

In ancient India, there lived a religious Maharajah named Dharmabrata. His kingdom was in Upper India, by the river Jumna. Small in size the State was, but it had a most kind and generous ruler. There was little sickness or sorrow in the kingdom, and what there was did not linger there, for the Maharajah was always eager to help those in trouble, and treated his subjects as if they were his children.

Temples were found everywhere, and Dharmabrata was so religious that his State resembled a topoban, and the people had pujas and parbans all the year round. All who visited the kingdom remarked on the peacefulness of the country, and Dharmabrata, though a Maharajah, was a saint.

(Dharmabrata means that religion was his object, and the Maharajah's life and deeds proved that he was worthy of the name he bore.)

Though the country was happy and peaceful, there was one thing needed, the want of which troubled the Maharajah's subjects and relations. He was much loved by his people, and they were anxious for him to have an heir. After some years, the Maharani told him, one morning, that she had had a dream that the god Vishnu spoke to her and said, "My child, I am pleased with you both, and you shall have a beautiful child." True enough it was, for a few months later she became the mother of a lovely little daughter, who was named Sunity.

When Sunity was quite a child, an unknown sage came to her father's court, and, noticing the form of a lotus flower shadowed in the pupils of her eyes, prophesied that she would be a great queen and that her name would live for ever in the world. The King and Queen were, naturally, delighted with the fortune-teller, and promised him a handsome reward if his augury came true. The mystic smiled and disappeared, and was never seen nor heard of again, in the kingdom of Dharmabrata Maharajah. NINE IDEAL INDIAN WOMEN