Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.1789

c8.1789

One day Amardana king of the owls with a large army of a lakh of his subjects attacked the crows at night. The crows could not see at night and so all the crows excepting a few of the top ones were killed. Meghavarṇa, the king, and his ministers, Uddīpaka, Sandipaka, Anudipaka and Cirañjīvī and a few other subjects were the only ones who escaped from there somehow. They sat in council at a place and thought of the ways and means to wreak vengeance on the owls. Uddīpaka said that when the strength of the enemy was great it was advisable to move away to another place, or to seek the aid of mighty people or to surrender to the enemy. It was the nature of dogs to leave one’s place and go to another place, Sandipaka said. Others also were of the same opinion. Cirañjīvī alone did not express any opinion and so the king asked him why he was sitting silent.