In an attempt to escape the elephant the king ran straight into the forest and he made sure that the path that he was running was full of holes. As the king ran the elephant madly charged him and the elephant did not see properly and it fell into one of chasms on the ground and was killed.
The king was now filled with fatigue and he collapsed near a huge lake. The lake was full of lotuses and the king drank and bathed the water of the lake. He even ate the fibres of the lotus as food.
The king then went to sleep because he was overcome with tiredness. As the king slept some guards returned from hunting on that very path. The guards saw the king with auspicious marks all over his body and were surprised. The guards tied the king and took him to their own king who was King Muktaphala.
King Muktaphala was a believer in human sacrifice. As soon as he saw the man with the auspicious marks on his body, king Muktaphala realized that this man would be an apt sacrifice.
However, just before king Muktaphala could kill the other man something very strange happened. The bounds around the other man's hands fell off.
King Muktaphala realized that he was not supposed to kill this man and hence spared King Kanakavarsha's life.
Thus this was how King Kanakavarsha had three attempts made on his life within the one year that he had been away from his wife and his son and King Kanakavarsha escaped all of it.
Adapted from the Katha Sarith Sagara
No comments:
Post a Comment