A Lost Friend found by a song

Once upon a time, in the realm of Avanti, and the city
of Ujjeni, reigned a great king named Avanti. At that
time, a Candala village lay outside Ujjeni, and there the
Great Being was born. Another person w r as born the son
of his mother's sister. The one of these two was named
Citta, and the other Sambhuta.

These two when they grew up, having learnt what is
called the art of sweeping in the Candala breed, thought
one day they would go and shew off this art at the city
gate. So one of them shewed off at the north gate, and
one at the east. Now in this city were two women wise in
the omens of sight, the one a merchant's daughter and the
other a family priest's. These went forth to make merry
in the park, having ordered food to be brought hard and
soft, garlands and perfumes ; and it so happened that one
went out by the northern gate and one the eastern.
Seeing the two young Candalas shewing their art, the
girls asked "Who are these?" Candalas, they were
informed. "This is an evil omen to see!" they said,
and after washing their eyes with perfumed water, they
returned back. Then the multitude cried, "O vile outcasts,
you have made us lose food and strong drink which would
have cost us nothing!" They belaboured the two kins-
men, and did them much misery and mischief. When they
recovered their senses, up they got and joined company,
and told each the other what woe had befallen him,
weeping and wailing, and wondering what to do now. "All
this misery has come upon us," they thought, "because
of our birth. We shall never be able to play the part of
Candalas ; let us conceal our birth, and go to Takkasila
in the disguise of young brahmins, and study there."
Having made this decision, they went thither, and fol-
lowed their studies in the law under a far-famed master.
A rumour was blown abroad over India, that two young
Candalas were students, and had concealed their birth.


The wise Citta was successful in his studies, but Samb-
huta not so.

One day a villager invited the teacher, intending to
offer food to the brahmins. Now it happened that rain
fell in the night, and flooded all the hollows in the road.
Early in the morning the teacher summoned wise Citta,
and said, " My lad, I cannot go, do you go with the young
men, and pronounce a blessing, eat what you get for your-
self and bring home what there is for me." Accordingly
he took the young brahmins, and went. While the young
men bathed, and rinsed their mouths, the people prepared
rice porridge, which they set ready for them, saying, " Let
it cool." Before it was cool, the young men came and sat
down. The people gave them the water of offering, and
set the bowls in front of them. Sambhuta's wits were
somewhat muddled, and imagining it to be cool, took up
a ball of the rice and put it in his mouth, but it burnt him
like a red-hot ball of metal. In his pain he forgot his
part altogether, and glancing at wise Citta, he said, in the
Candala dialect, "Hot, ain't it?" The other forgot himself
too, and answered in their manner of speech, "Spit it out,
spit it out." At this the young men looked at each other,
and said, "What kind of language is this?" Wise Citta
pronounced a blessing.

When the young men came home, they gathered in
little knots and sat here and there discussing the words
used. Finding that it was the dialect of the Candalas,
they cried out on them, "O vile outcasts ! you have been
tricking us all this while, and pretending to be brahmins!"
And they beat them both. One good man drove them
out, saying, "Away! the blot's in the blood. Be off! Go
somewhere and become ascetics." The young brahmins
told their teacher that these two were Candalas.

The pair went out into the woods, and there took up
the ascetic life, and after no long time died, and were born
again as the young of a doe on the banks of the Neranjara.
From the time of their birth they always went about
together. One day, when they had fed, a hunter espied
them under a tree ruminating and cuddling together, very
happy, head to head, nozzle to nozzle, horn to horn. He
cast a javelin at them, and killed them both by one blow.

After this they were born as the young of an osprey,
on the bank of Nerbudda. There too, when they grew
up, after feeding they would cuddle together, head to
head and beak to beak. A bird snarer saw them, caught
them together, and killed them both.

Next the wise Citta was born at Kosambi, as the son
of a family priest ; the wise Sambhuta was born as the
son of the king of Uttarapaucala. From their name-days
they could remember their former births. But Sambhuta
was not able to remember all without breaks, and all he
could remember was the fourth or Candala birth ; Citta
however remembered all four in due order. When Citta
was sixteen years old, he went away and became an ascetic
in Himalaya, and developed the Faculty of the religious
ecstasy, and dwelt in the bliss of ecstatic trance. Wise
Sambhuta after his father's death had the Umbrella
spread over him, and on the very day of the umbrella
ceremony, in the midst of a great concourse, made a
ceremonial hymn, and uttered two stanzas in aspiration.
When they heard this, the royal wives and the musicians
all chanted them, saying, "Our king's own coronation
hymn ! " and in course of time all the citizens sang it, as
the hymn which their king loved. Wise Citta, in his
dwelling place in Himalaya, wondered whether his brother
Sambhuta had assumed the Umbrella, or not. Perceiving
that he had, he thought, "I shall never be able to instruct
a young ruler ; but when he is old, I will visit him, and
persuade him to be an ascetic." For fifty years he went
not, and by that time the king was increased with sons
and daughters; then by his supernatural power, he went,
and alighted in the park, and sat down on the seat of
ceremony like an image of gold. Just then a lad was
picking up sticks, and as he did so he sang that hymn.
Wise Citta called him to approach ; he came up with an
obeisance, and waited. Citta said to him, "Since early
morning you have been singing that hymn; do you know
no other?" -"Oh yes, sir, I know many more, but these
are the verses the king loves, that is why I sing no
others."- -"Is there any one who can sing a refrain to the
kings hymn?" "No, sir." "Could you?" "Yes, if I am
taught one." -" Well, when the king chants these two
verses, you sing this by way of a third," and he recited
a hymn. "Now," said he, "go and sing this before the
king, and the king will be pleased with you, and make
much of you for it." The lad went to his mother quickly,
and got himself drest up spick and span; then to the
king's door, and sent in word that a lad would sing him
a refrain to his hymn. The king said, " Let him approach."
When the lad had come in, and saluted him, quoth the
king, " They say you will sing me an answering refrain to
my hymn?" "Yes, my lord," said he, "bring in the whole
court to hear." As soon as the court had assembled, the
lad said, "Sing your hymn, my lord, and I will answer with
mine." The king repeated a pair of stanzas :

Every good deed bears fruit or soon or late,
No deed without result, aud nothing- vain:

I see Sambhuta mighty grown and great,
Thus do his virtues bear him fruit again.

Every good deed bears fruit or soon or late,
No deed without result, and nothing vain.

Who knows if Citta also may be great,
And like myself, his heart have brought him gain?

At the end of this hymn, the lad chanted the third
stanza :

Every good deed bears fruit or soon or late,
No deed without result, and nothing vain.

Behold, my lord, see Citta at thy gate,
And like thyself, his heart has brought him gain.

On hearing this the king repeated the fourth stanza:

Then art thou Citta, or the tale didst hear
From him, or did some other make thee know?

Thy hymn is very sweet: I have no fear;
A village and a bounty I bestow.

Then the lad repeated the fifth stanza:

I am not Citta, but I heard the thing.

It was a sage laid ou me this command
Go and recite an answer to the king,

And be rewarded by his grateful hand.

Hearing this, the king thought, " It must be my brother
Citta; now I'll go and see him"; then he laid his bidding
upon his men in the words of these two stanzas :

Come, yoke the royal chariots, so finely wrought and made :
Gird up with girths the elephants, in necklets bright arrayed.

Beat drums for joy, and let the conchs be blown,

Prepare the swiftest chariots I own:

For to that hermitage I will away,

To see the sage that sits within, this day.

So he spoke; then mounting his fine chariot, he went
swiftly to the park gate. There he checked his chariot,
and approached wise Citta with an obeisance, and sat
down on one side ; greatly pleased, he recited the eighth
stanza :

A precious hymn it was I sang so sweet

While thronging multitudes around me pressed;

For now this holy sage I come to greet

And all is joy and gladness in my breast.

Happy from the instant he saw wise Citta, he gave all
necessary directions, bidding prepare a seat for his brother,
and repeated the ninth stanza:

Accept a seat, and for your feet fresh water: it is right
To offer gifts of food to guests: accept, as we invite.

After this sweet invitation, the king repeated another
stanza, offering him the half of his kingdom :

Let them make glad the place where thou shalt dwell,
Let throngs of waiting women wait on thee;

let me shew thee that I love thee well,
And let us both kings here together be.

When he had heard these words, wise Citta discoursed
to him in six stanzas:

Seeing the fruit of evil deeds, king-,
Seeing 1 what profit deeds of goodness bring-,
I fain would exercise stern self-control,
Sons, wealth, and cattle cannot charm my soul.

Ten decades has this mortal life, which each to each succeed :
This limit reached, man withers fast like to a broken reed.

Then what is pleasure, what is love, wealth-hunting what to me?
What sons and daughters? know, O king, from fetters I am free.

For this is .true, I know it well death will not pass me by:

And what is love, or what is wealth, when you must come to die ?

The lowest race that go upon two feet
Are the Candalas, meanest men on earth,

When all our deeds were ripe, as guerdon meet
We both as young Candalas had our birth.

Candalas in Avanti land, deer by Neranjara,

Ospreys by the Nerbudda, now brahmin and Khattiya.

Having thus made clear his mean births in time past,
here also in this birth he declared the impermanency of
things created, and recited four stanzas to arouse an
effort :

Life is but short, and death the end must be:
The aged have no hiding where to flee.
Then, Pancala, what I bid thee, do:
All deeds which grow to misery, eschew.

Life is but short, and death the end must] be:
The aged have no hiding where to flee.
Then, Pancala, what I bid thee, do:
All deeds whose fruit is misery, eschew.

Life is but short, and death the end must be:
The aged have no hiding where to flee.
Then, Pancala, what I bid thee, do:
All deeds that are with passion stained eschew.

Life is but short, and death the end must be:
Old age will sap our strength, we cannot flee.
Then, O Paficala, what I bid thee, do:
All deeds that lead to lowest hell, eschew.

The king rejoiced as the Great Being spoke and
repeated three stanzas:

True is that word, Brother! which you say,
You like a holy saint your words dictate :

But my desires are hard to cast away
By such as I am ; they are very great.

As elephants deep sunken in the mire
Cannot climb out, although they see the land:

So, sunken in the slough of strong desire
Upon the Brethren's Path I cannot stand.

As father or as mother would their son
Admonish, good and happy how to grow:

How happiness after this life is won
Tell me, and by which way I ought to go.

Then the Great Being said to him:

lord of men! thou canst not cast away
These passions which are common to mankind:

Let not thy people unjust taxes pay,
Equal and righteous ruling let them find.

Send messengers to north, south, east, and west

The brahmins and ascetics to invite:
Provide them food and drink, a place to rest,

Clothes, and all else that may be requisite.

Give thou the food and drink which satisfies

Sages and holy brahmins, full of faith :
Who gives and rules as well as in him lies

Will go to heaven all blameless after death.

But if, surrounded by thy womankind
Thou feel thy passion and desire too strong,

This verse of poetry then bear in mind
And sing it in the midst of alL the throng :

No roof to shelter from the sky, amid the dogs he lay,

But mother nursed him as she walked: but he's a king to-day.

Such was the Great Being's advice. Then he said,
"I have given you my counsel. And now do you become
an ascetic or not, as you think fit ; but I will follow up the
ripening of my own deeds." Then he rose up in the air,
and shook off the dust of his feet over him, and departed to
Himalaya. And the king saw it, and was greatly moved ;
and relinquishing his kingdom to his eldest son, he called
out his army, and set his face in the direction of Himalaya.
When the Great Being heard of his coming, he went with
his attendant sages and received him, and ordained him
to the holy life, and taught him the means of inducing
mystic ecstasy. He developed the Faculty of mystical
meditation. Thus these two together became destined for
Brahma's world.