The king came
into the palace with Mrigankavati beside him.
Dirghadarsin
saw the entire scene and a second later, he collapsed and died of a heartbreak.
This was where the
Vetala stopped narrating the story to King Trivikramasena.
Vetala looked
expectedly at the king. “King Yasahketu had found his wife and a celestial beauty
at that. The entire kingdom rejoiced along with King Yasahketu. But why was
Dirghadarsin, the minister so unhappy?”
King Trivikramasena
nodded sadly. “This was bound to happen especially to a man like Dirghadarsin
who had worked so hard to carry out his work without trying to spoil his
reputation.”
“Why, your
majesty?”
“Even before
this, King Yasahketu barely carried out any of the duties of the king and left most
of the work to his minister. In fact, Dirghadarsin had to go on a pilgrimage
tour on the advice of his wife Medhavathi just to make sure that no one thought
that he was trying to usurp the throne.” King Trivikramasena shook his head. “But
things were much worse now. The king was in a love and this was no ordinary
woman. She was a celestial being. That meant that the king was never going to spend
any time for the kingdom. There was a very high chance that the king spent all
his time with his wife and ignored his kingly duties. That would mean that Dirghadarsin
would have to take care of the kingdom.” King Trivikramasena shook his head. “If
that happened, there was no way that the minister could again convince the people
of the kingdom that he was just carrying out his duties to the best of his abilities.”
King Trivikramasena
looked sad. “That was the reason that Dirghadarsin was so sad and died broken-hearted.”
Having heard the
right answer, the Vetala left the king and flew back to the tree.
Adapted
from the Katha Sarith Sagara
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