196 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
And just then Kutandanta the Brahman had gone apart to the upper terrace of his house for his siesta; and seeing the people thus to go by, he asked his door-keeper the reason. And the doorkeeper told him.
Then Kutandanta thought: ‘I have heard that the Samana Gotama understands about the successful performance of a sacrifice with its threefold method and its sixteen accessory instruments. Now I don’t know all this, and yet I want to carry out a sacrifice. It would be well for me to go to the Samana Gotama, and ask him about it.’
So he sent his doorkeeper to the Brahmans and householders of Khanumata, to ask them to wait till he could go with them to call upon the Blessed One.
But there were at that time a number of Brahmans staying at Khanumata to take part in the great sacrifice. And when they heard this they went to Kutadanta, and persuaded him on the same grounds as the Brahmans had laid before Sonadanda, not to go. But he answered them in the same terms as Sonadanda had used to those Brahmans. Then they were satisfied, and went with him to call upon the Blessed One.
And when he was seated there Kutadanta the Brahman told the Blessed One what he had heard, and requested him to tell him about success in performing a sacrifice in its three modes and with its accessory articles of furniture of sixteen kinds.
‘Well then, O Brahman, give ear and listen attentively and I will speak.’
‘Very well, Sir, ‘said Kutadanta in reply; and the Blessed One spoke as follows:
- ‘Long ago, O Brahman, there was a king by name Wide-realm(Maha Vigha), mighty, with great wealth and large property; with stores of silver and gold, of aids to enjoyment, of goods and corn; with his treasure-houses and his garners full. Now when King Wide-realm was once sitting alone in meditation, he became anxious at the thought: “I have in abundance all the good things a mortal can enjoy. The whole wide circle of the earth is mine by conquest to possess.’ Twere well if I were to offer a great sacrifice that should ensure me weal and welfare for many days.”
And he had the Brahman, his chaplain, called; and telling him all that he had thought, he said: “Be I would fain, O Brahman, offer a great sacrifice-let the venerable one instruct me how-for my weal and my welfare for many days.”
- Thereupon the Brahman who was chaplain said to the king: “The king’s country. Sirs, is harrassed and harried. There are decoits