Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/170

 —" You are fortunate, king, in that the holy god Śiva is so well disposed towards you, so proceed now to conquer your enemies, and then enjoy the prosperity won by your arm. For when prosperity is acquired by a king's own virtues, it remains fixed in his family, for blessings acquired by the virtues of the owners are never lost. And for this reason it was that that treasure long buried in the ground, which had been accumulated by your ancestors and then lost, was recovered by you. Moreover with reference to this matter hear the following tale:"

Story of Devadása.:— Long ago there was in the city of Pátaliputra a certain merchant's son, sprung from a rich family, and his name was Devadása. And he married a wife from the city of Paundravardhana, the daughter of some rich merchant. When his father died, Devadása became in course of time addicted to vice, and lost all his wealth at play. And then his wife's father came and took away to his own house in Paundravardhana his daughter, who was distressed by poverty and the other hardships of her lot. Gradually the husband began to be afflicted by his misfortunes, and wishing to be set up in his business, he came to Paundravardhana to ask his father-in-law to lend him the capital which he required. And having arrived in the evening at the city of Paundravardhana, seeing that he was begrimed with dust, and in tattered garments, he thought to himself, " How can I enter my father-in-law's house in this state ? In truth for a proud man death is preferable to exhibiting poverty before one's relations." Thus reflecting, he went into the market-place, and remained outside a certain shop during the night, crouching with contracted body, like the lotus which is folded at night. And immediately he saw a certain young merchant open the door of that shop and enter it. And a moment after he saw a woman come with noiseless step to that same place, and rapidly enter. And while he fixed his eyes on the interior of the shop in which a light was burning, he recognized in that woman his own wife. Then Devadása seeing that wife of his repairing to another man, and bolting the door, being smitten with the thunderbolt of grief, thought to himself; " A man deprived of wealth loses even his own body, how then can he hope to retain the affections of a woman? For women have fickleness implanted in their nature by an invariable law, like the flashes of lightning. So here I have an instance of the misfortunes which befall men who fall into the sea of vice, and of the behaviour of an independent woman who lives in her father's house." Thus he reflected as he stood outside, and he seemed to himself to hear his wife confidentially conversing with her lover. So he applied his ear to the door, and that wicked woman was at the moment saying in secret to the merchant, her paramour; " Listen; as I am so fond of you, I will to-day toll you a secret; my husband long ago had a great-grandfather named Víravar-