Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/73

 count of their going without food." When he heard this speech of the hunters he made them shew him the way, and out of curiosity went in person to see Gunádhya, and he beheld him owing to his forest life over-spread with matted locks, that looked like the smoke of the fire of his curse, that was almost extinguished.

Then the king recognized him as he stood in the midst of the weeping animals, and after he had respectfully saluted him, he asked him for an explanation of all the circumstances. That wise Bráhman then related to the king in the language of the demons his own history as Pushpadanta, giving an account of the curse and all the circumstances which originated the descent of the tale to earth. Then the king, discovering that he was an incarnation of a Gana, bowed at his feet, and asked him for that celestial tale that had issued from the mouth of Śiva. Then Gunádhya said to that king Sátaváhana; "O king I have burnt six tales containing six hundred thousand couplets; but here is one tale consisting of a hundred thousand couplets, take that:* and these two pupils of mine shall explain it to you." So spake Gunádhya and took leave of the king, and then by strength of devotion laid aside his earthly body, and released from the curse ascended to his own heavenly home. Then the king took that tale which Gunádhya had given, called Vrihat Kathá, containing the adventures of Naraváhanadatta, and went to his own city. And there he bestowed on Gunadeva and Nandideva, the pupils of the poet who composed that tale, lands, gold, garments, beasts of burden, palaces, and treasures. And having recovered the sense of that tale with their help, Sátaváhana composed the book named Kathápitha, in order to shew how the tale came to be first made known in the Paiśácha language. Now that tale was so full of various interest, that men were so taken up with it as to forget the tales of the gods, and after producing that effect in the city it attained uninterrupted renown in the three worlds.