k
that it was only to be for one night because I had
now
longer, and I should meanwhile enjoy a
ttle p
se, that
succ
t as little did I let
em
easons to women.
Meantime the work went on and I was on the point
of making a stirring speech to my armed servants, an old
practice of mine when danger threatened on our caravan
journeys, and which had always been attended with
excellent results, when, with one accord and as if by pre‐
arrangement, my two wives dashed out of separate doors
into the courtyard, with an air of consternation on their
faces and shouting loudly. Everyone looked round at them
and I was forced to interrupt my speech before it was
well begun.
Sītā brought out our two daughters, Savitrī our little
son, with her. No sooner had they reached me than they
pointed each at the other, and cried simultaneously:
“So at last this awful woman has succeeded in
turning your heart against me, so that you drive me forth
and lay upon me, your faithful wife, the disgrace of being
sent back to my father’s house, with your innocent little
daughters!/with your poor little son!”
How long and bitterly, brother, have I regretted my
greed and folly to have married myself to two women at
the same time — to have drawn these two into a situation
fraught with such potential for friction — how painful and
joyless it was for all three of us, to speak nothing of the
children and the rest of the household who all had to
endure our constant wranglings. How rarely, I was to
discover, does such an arrangement bring anything but
grief — for thus it was between us once again.
considered that, once they were there, they might as well
stay a week or
li
eriod of peace at home — supposing, of cour
I
eeded in beating off the attack. Jus
th
know the reason for this arrangement because, at
that time, I foolishly believed that one should never give
r
129
The foaming rage that possessed them brought it to
pass that neither perceived how the other accused her of
the very same thing which she herself brought forward,
and complained of the same hard
which she herself
bewailed as her own and that, without question, there
must have been a mistake somewhere.
Far from suspecting anything of the kind, they
screamed and howled, tearing their hair and striking their
breasts with their fists — berating me also for my faithless‐
ness and favouritism — until at last, as if by way of relax‐
ation, each began to pour out abuse upon her supposedly
victorious rival, which in its coarseness far surpassed
anything I had ever heard, even in the company of the
women of the streets.
Finally I succeeded in making myself heard, and
also in making clear to them that they had utterly misun‐
derstood my message: that neither of them was to be sent
to her own parents, but to my father’s house, and by no
means as a punishment or as a sign of my displeasure, but
solely on account of their own and their children’s safety.
When, however, I saw that they at last fully understood
this, I could no longer contain myself, but cried out:
“This is what you have created by your unbearable
rudeness; you both need to learn to behave yourselves in a
seemly fashion! This is what your ‘shaveling monk’ has
done for you! Who do you suppose that was? It was
Angulimāla: the robber, the horrible fiend, who slays
people and hangs their fingers around his neck. He it is
whom you have abused, he whom you have angered! It’s a
miracle that he didn’t beat you to death with his almsbowl.
But it is we others, if any of us should fall into his hands,
who will have to pay to the uttermost farthing; and who
knows whether you yourselves will be safe from him,
even at my father’s house!”
When my wives fully comprehended the meaning
fate
130
of my words, they began to cry as if they already felt the
knife at their throats, and wanted
rush out of the gate
with the children.
I stopped them, however, and then carefully
explained that for the pres
nger was to be feared
because Anguli
, as I well knew, would not attack us
before midnigh
o our
dwelling and p
h they and
ldren would be likely to need during the time that
main in
‐
on
arrived just then,
lso said that this was
withdrew.
head
d
to
ent no da
māla
t. Then I bade them go back int
ack all the things together whic
the chi
the danger from robbers compelled them to re
town. This they then at once did.
At the same time I had quite overlooked the pos
sible effect of my words on my people. And that, as I so
discovered, was anything but agreeable. For when they
learned that it was the terrible Angulimāla, long since
believed to be dead, that had spied out my house, and
would certainly attack it in the night, first one and then
another slunk quietly away, until finally they threw down
their arms by dozens and declared that they would have
nothing to do with such a devil — that no one could
een enlisted in
possibly ask it of them. Those who had b
e town, and of whom the first‐comers
th
when they heard how things stood, a
ot what they had bargained for and
n
Only about twenty of my own people, at their
the brave steward of my house, professed that they woul
not leave me but would defend the place to the last drop
ed
of their blood; for they could all see that I was determin
not to sacrifice this splendid property in which my heart
was wrapped up but, if need be, to perish with it.
Several resolute fellows from the town, attracted
almost more by the prospect of a hot fight than by the
money, and who not only did not fear the name of
er
Angulimāla but talked themselves into the belief that, aft
they had fought well and been taken prisoner, they would
131
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