The prince rode with his army to the borders of Vidiśānagara and sent word through an emissary to king Meghamālin seeking the hand of princess Haṃsāvalī. An elated Meghamālin himself came to meet Kamalākara and said “O prince! You need not have ridden so far for this. You had to but only send a missive expressing this noble wish of yours. I am indeed in favour of this alliance. Let me tell you why. When Haṃsāvalī was only a little girl, I was...
Now, I will explain the meaning of the phenomenon you saw in the lake. The incidents there indicate what will befall Mṛgāṅkadatta in the future. He is the lion cub; his ministers are his ten arms. His father, who is like the hunter shooed him away from his kingdom, i.e., the forest, out of anger. He heard of the fame of Śaśāṅkavātī, who is born in avanti; as he rushed towards her, he got stuck in a whirlwind, symbolized by the net and lost his...
He was delighted to see Vinayavatī who was gathering flowers on the river bank while he was on the way to take bath. He bathed and by the time he came back, the parents of Vinayavatī - Tārāvalī and Raṅkumālin- had arrived. Raṅkumālin welcomed him and gave his daughter’s hand to him in marriage and also gave him a divine chariot. ‘Rule the earth bound by the four oceans with Vinayavatī!’, blessed Vijitāśu. Puṣkarākṣa ascended the chariot along...
The story of Bhadrabāhu and his intelligent minster
There lived a king named Bhadrabāhu in the Magadha kingdom. He had an intelligent minister named Mantragupta.
One day, the king called the minister and said, “Dharmagopa, the king of Kāśī, has a stunningly beautiful daughter named Anaṅgalīlā. I have asked him many a time for her hand in marriage but he has categorically refused, either due to hostility or on account of his arrogance arising out...
अव्याद्वो विघ्नविध्वंसकीर्तिस्तम्भमिवोत्क्षिपन् ।
करं गणपतिः क्रीडालीनभृङ्गाक्षरावलिम् ॥
[Let the deity, Gaṇeśa protect you, he plants his trunk like a victory pillar (Kīrtistambha) with the swarming bees around it looking like the letters on the pillar proclaiming his victory over obstacles]
अरागम् अपिरागाढ्यरचनाचतुरं परम् ।
हरं नवनवाश्चर्यसर्गचित्रकरं नुमः ॥
[We bow down to Śiva, who though free from rāga (color/passion), is adept...
नमताशेषविघ्नौघवारणं वारणाननम् |
कारणं सर्वसिद्धीनां दुरितार्णववारणम् ||
We pray to the elephant faced Ganeśa, who removes all traces of torrents of obstacles!
Who is the cause of all achievements and warder-off of the ocean of hardships!
One day when Naravāhanadatta was in the royal gardens, two princes from another kingdom came to him. One of them said “O prince! We are Ruciradeva and Potaka, the children of the king of Vaiśākhanagara....
The following night Gomukha narrated this story to entertain Naravāhanadatta–
A great muni resided in Dhāreśvara. He addressed his disciples, ‘If any of you have seen or heard something extraordinary tell me!’ One of his disciple narrated this story:--
The Story of the parivrājakas of Kaśmīra and Pāṭalīputra
A parivrājaka proud of his erudition resided in Kaśmīra. He declared that he would defeat everyone in scholarly debate and set out to...
Early next morning, the three men began their journey. After travelling for several hours, they came by a pond and rested there until the sun went down. At night, as the stars began to dot the night sky, they climbed up a tree on the shore and sat down on one of the branches. After a little while, they witnessed something miraculous. From the depths of the pond arose a man. From his mouth, he pulled out a woman and then a bed. As the three men...
A poor man once found a bag of gold coins. While he could have gone elsewhere, he foolishly sat down at the same place and started counting the coins. In the meantime, the person who had lost the money came looking for it. He found this man and snatched his belonging back.
Thus, anything that a fool finds will come of no use to him.
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A person wanted to show the full moon to a foolish guy. He stretched his hand out and pointed a finger at the...
A fool went to a lake to drink water; he saw the reflection of a bird called svarṇa-cūḍa and thought that there was gold fallen in the waters. He jumped into the lake to fetch the gold. He, however, did not procure anything. His father saw him taking a dip in the water again and again, shooed away the bird and explained to him that it was not real gold. People like him are comical, cause humour, but are in pain within themselves.
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Once, a...