When he had uttered these words, he said to himself with joyous and exceedingly contented mind: “This gift here in this forest is my best gift. After I have here [[270]]absolutely given away Madrī too, she shall by no means be recalled.” Then he took Madrī by the hand, and said to that Brahman: “Receive, O most excellent Brahman, this my dear wife, loving of heart, obedient to orders, charming in speech, demeaning herself as one of lofty race.”
When, in order to attain to supreme insight, he had given away his beautiful wife, the earth quaked six times to its extremities like a boat on the water. And when Madrī had passed into the power of the Brahman, overcome by pain at being severed from her husband, her son, and her daughter, with faltering breath and in a voice which huskiness detained within her throat, she spoke thus: “What crime have I committed in my previous existence that now, like a cow whose calf is dead, I am lamenting in an uninhabited forest?” Then the King of the Gods, Śakra, laid aside his Brahman’s form, assumed his proper shape, and said to Madrī: “O fortunate one, I am not a Brahman, nor am I a man at all. I am the King of the Gods, Śakra, the subduer of the Asuras. As I am pleased that you have manifested the most excellent morality, say what desire you would now wish to have satisfied by me.”
Rendered happy by these words, Madrī prostrated herself before Śakra, and said: “O thou of the thousand eyes, may the lord of the three and thirty set my children free from thraldom and let them find their way to their grandfather.” After these words had been spoken the Prince of the Gods entered the hermitage and addressed the Bodisat. Taking Madrī by the left hand, he thus spake to the Bodisat: “I give you Madrī for your service. You must not give her to any one. If you give away what has been entrusted to you, fault will be found with you.”
Afterwards the King of the Gods, Śakra, deluded the Brahman who had carried off the boy and girl, so that under the impression that it was another city, he entered the selfsame city from which they had departed, and there [[271]]set to work to sell the children. When the ministers saw this they told the king, saying, “O king, your grandchildren, Kṛishṇa and Jālinī, have been brought into this good city in order to be sold, by an extremely worthless Brahman.” When the king heard these words, he said indignantly, “Bring the children here, forthwith.”
When this command had been attended to by the ministers, and the townspeople had hastened to appear before the king, one of the ministers brought the children before him. When the king saw his grandchildren brought before him destitute of clothing and with foul bodies, he fell from his throne to the ground, and the assembly of ministers, and the women, and all who were present began to weep. Then the king said to the ministers: “Let the bright-eyed one, who, even when dwelling in the forest, delights in giving, be summoned hither at once, together with his wife.”
After this the King of the Gods, Śakra, having paid reverence to the Bodisat, returned to his own habitation.
Now, when King Viśvāmitra was dead, the Brahmans, the ministers, the towns-people, and the country people, went to the hermitage and with entreaties invited the Bodisat to come to the city. There they installed him as king. Thereafter King Viśvaṇtara was known by the name of Viśvatyāga (all-giver). And after he had made presents of various kinds to the Śramaṇas, Brahmans, the poor and needy, his friends and relations, his acquaintances and servants, he uttered these ślokas: “In order to obtain supreme insight have I fearlessly bestowed gifts on Kshatriyas, Brahmans, Vaiśyas, Sūdras, Chaṇḍālas, and Pukkasas, with gold and silver, oxen and horses, jewelled earrings, and labouring slaves. For giving is the most excellent of virtues. With a heart free from passion have I given away my wife and children, and obtained thereby power over men in this and the other world.”
As King Viśvāmitra had, for Viśvaṇtara’s sake, bestowed [[272]]great treasures on the Brahman Jujaka, who had thereby attained to great wealth, Jujaka’s friends and relations, and those who were dear to him, came to him and said: “Your property and wealth and high fortune all depend upon Viśvaṇtara.” He replied: “What have I to do with Prince Viśvaṇtara? As I was born in the first caste, I have obtained the recompense of the world, and therefore have I become so wealthy.” [[273]]