Kathakoca or Treasury of Stories

SR No.: 016059
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: C H Tawney
Publisher: Oriental Books Reprint Corporation New Delhi
Publication Year: 1975
Total Pages: 288
Language: English
Classification: Dictionary & Dictionary
File Size: 15 MB

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Dhanya from the house of the gardener Kusumapála. After Dhanya had made his bow, he was placed on a becoming seat. When the king saw that he was like a youthful god, he said to himself : “My daughter has fixed her affection on a worthy object.' So he had the princess summoned, and said to Dhanya : 'I give you this maiden to wife.' Then Dhanya received her with a heart full of abundance of joy.' Thereupon Somaçrí bowed before her parents, and said: 'Let him also marry my two companions.'* Then the king said: 'If this thing pleases all three of you, let it be so. Accordingly Somaçrí informed her companions, and the king caused the marriage of those maidens to Dhanya to be celebrated with great solemnity; and Gobhadra and Kusumapála also spent large sums on it. Dhanya lived happily with those three wives in a palace given him by the king. The king also gave him many elephants and horses, and much gold and raiment, and wealth of other kinds, so that he lived in comfort. One day Dhanya, while sitting at a window in his palace, saw his parents wandering about in the road in a miserable condition, with soiled garments. He sent some servants of his own, and had them brought to his house; then he made them take a bath, and had them dressed in splendid garments. They clung to Dhanya's neck and wept aloud. Then Dhanya made them sit on a seat of honour, and said to them, specially addressing his father : My father, how have you both suddenly become poor? How could such a splendid fortune fail ?' His father answered : 'As soon as you left our house the whole of our wealth gradually disappeared. Some of our property was carried off by thieves; some of it was burned in a conflagration; some of it was seized by the king on account of a crime committed by my sons; all my wealth having thus been dissipated, we were ashamed to live at home any longer : I have accordingly come here ; your elder brothers are outside.' Then Dhanya sent men, and brought his.
* In the Katha Sarit Ságara' (vol. ii., p. 471), Mandaradeví requests that Naraváhanadatta may marry her four companions.