After a time there came unto King Janaka a king[6] who had lost his possessions. As King Janaka did not care for him, he betook himself to Mahaushadha, who received him with compassion and supplied him with means of subsistence.
Some time afterwards a Brahman came to Mahaushadha and asked him for a measure of barley. Mahaushadha promised it to him, but intrusted the delivery of it to the overseer of the granary, who kept putting the matter off from day to day and gave nothing.
Now it came to pass one day that the king was sitting surrounded by the ministers and the town and country folk at a certain spot where many people paid reverence to him. He asked the ministers to what person a secret might be intrusted, on whom it might be safe to rely. The ministers began to consider. One of them said that a man might intrust a secret to his friend; another, to his wife; a third, to his mother; a fourth, to his sister; a fifth, to his brother. When Mahaushadha was asked by the king why he did not in his turn express an opinion, he replied, “O king, my opinion is that a man ought not to intrust a secret to any one, but least of all to his wife. This will I prove unto you, O king.”
Some time after this the king’s peacock was missing. [[152]]Mahaushadha found it but hid it away. Then he took another which resembled it and said to his wife, “Have you heard that the king’s peacock up at the palace is missing?” She replied that she had heard about it. Then Mahaushadha said to her, “Say nothing about it to any one, but cook it quickly, and I will eat it.”[7] She said to herself, “See now, this man from the hill-village wants to eat the king’s peacock. My father places the utmost confidence in him, and he acts to the king’s hurt.”
Some time afterwards, Mahaushadha dressed in full array a courtesan who bore a likeness to one of the king’s wives, and brought her to his wife. And he said to his wife, “This is such and such a wife of the king’s. As I am very intimate with her, and you are dear to me, do not mention it to any one.” Thinking that she and Mahaushadha were living together, the king’s daughter became very angry. And she considered that as he was dishonouring her father, who was quite unaware thereof, it was not right to appoint as first minister a man sprung from a lowly family in a hill-village, and to intrust the whole of the king’s affairs to him, the shameful one. So with a view to seeing that he was put back again into his former place, she went to her father and said, “O father, you have unadvisedly appointed this miscreant first minister, and you placed reliance upon him in an unbecoming manner. He has sinned against the king’s wife, having had to do with such and such a wife of yours. And besides, it is he who has eaten the king’s peacock. Moreover, he has received in a friendly manner and has supplied with all necessaries men coming from a foreign land. But you, O father, have always held him dearer than all others, and no one save him has pleased you.” [[153]]
In order to sift this matter thoroughly, the king ordered his executioners to put Mahaushadha to death. Accordingly these men of low caste fastened a karavīra wreath around his neck, beat a drum, the sound of which resembles the voice of an ass, abused him with coarse language and threatened him. Like unto the servants of the god of death, with sharpened weapons in their hands, they led him away to the cemetery. But no man believed that he would be put to death. The townspeople and villagers had their eyes full of tears, and they uttered cries of sorrow and despair, and prayed to the gods, just as if a child of their own were going to be killed; and the poor Kshatriyas whom Mahaushadha had received kindly and provided with means of subsistence said to the king’s men, “As we will put this man to death, do ye turn back.”
As he passed out of the city, the Brahman’s wife Ātmavīrā laid hold of the skirt of his robe and said, “You who were to have given me the measure of barley, give it and go,” But Mahaushadha uttered this śloka: “A king does not become a friend, a hangman has no acquaintances; to women ought no secret to be intrusted; peacock’s flesh ought no one to eat; to the Brahman’s wife Ātmavīrā a man ought not to admit that he possesses a measure of barley.”
As he walked along uttering these words, the executioners said, “Have you, who are endowed with knowledge and excellent wisdom, anything to set forth?”
Mahaushadha replied, “O king, I have nothing to set forth; but in the despair of anguish I said what was needful.”
“What is that?”