Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.1785

c8.1785

On hearing the voice of Citragrīva outside, Hiraṇyaka came out and felt sorry for the plight of the doves. The rat pointed out that nobody could oppose fate and proved it with illustrations. He added :—“Though elephants and cobras are mightier and fiercer than men, it is because of fate that they are being controlled by smaller people than they themselves. Hiraṇyaka cut to pieces the threads of the net and set the doves free. Next day the doves flew away to their places. Seeing the generosity shown by the rat, the crow wanted to be friendly with the rat. The crow mentioned this to the rat. But the rat refused to be friendly thinking that it was a ruse to get him killed for his food. But the crow promised to be grateful for ever to the rat for saving the doves which belonged to the community of birds to which the crow also belonged. But the rat retorted that gratitude was a quality which was absent in any living being and generally harm was the reward for any favour done. The crow was greatly grieved to hear the words of Hiraṇyaka and told him that he (crow) would commit suicide if the rat did not take him as his friend. At last the rat took pity on the crow and they became friends. Time passed on and then there broke out a famine in the land. The crow decided to shift his abode and told the rat about it. He said he was going to a lake on the banks of which lived a friend of his, a tortoise. The tortoise, he added, would fetch for him from the lake plenty of fish to eat. The rat was also affected by the famine and so he also decided to accompany the crow. The crow took the rat in its beak and they both reached the lake where lived the tortoise named Manthara. The crow introduced Hiraṇyaka to the tortoise and the tortoise asked him the reason why he left his previous abode.