An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, with Short Explanations and a Concordance to the Bombay and Calcutta Editions and P. C. Roy's Translation c5.s7.726

c5.s7.726

[Kṛtaghnopākhyāna(m)] ("the episode about an ungrateful person"). § 658b (Āpaddh.): Bhīshma related Gautama, a brahman, belonging to the middle country, devoid of Vedic learning, entered a village desirous of obtaining charity. In that village lived a robber (*dasyu*), possessed of great wealth, devoted to the brahmans, etc. He gave to Gautama a piece of new cloth, a widowed (*bhartṛ virahitām*) young woman, and a house. Gautama lived happily in that village of aborigines (*śabarālaye*) for many years, helping the relatives of his wife, the female slave (*dāsī*). He began to practise archery, and went into the woods and killed wild cranes (*cakrāṅgān*), etc., in abundance, and became like one of the robbers. One day a brahman, devoted to the study of the Vedas, etc., and who did never accept any food if given by a Śūdra, came to the house of his ancient friend Gautama. Seeing Gautama, who resembled a cannibal, he exhorted him to abandon his sinful mode of life. Gautama, repenting, agreed to leave this village next morning with his guest, who passed the night there, refraining touching anything (though hungry) (XII, 168). Next morning, when the guest had left the house, Gautama proceeded towards the sea, having met with a caravan of merchants. The caravan was assailed by an infuriated elephant, but Gautama managed to escape, and fled towards the north, not knowing whither he proceeded, wandering alone in the forest like a *kimpuruṣa*. At last he reached a delightful forest, resembling the very woods of Nandana, and inhabited by *Y.* and *K.*, adorned with *śālas*, etc., with *Bhāraṇḍas* (having faces resembling those of human beings), *Bhūliṅgas*, etc. Under a delightful banyan-tree (description) he fell asleep; when the sun had set, the king of cranes, Nāḍijaṅgha or Rājadharman, Kaśyapa's son, the child of a celestial maiden (*devakanyāsutāḥ*), one of the daughters of Dakṣa (v. 6343), and possessed of great wisdom and a friend of Brahmán, came home from Brahmaloka. Exhausted with hunger and thirst, Gautama thought of slaying him. Nāḍijaṅgha welcomed Gautama, and asked him to stay with him till the next morning (XII, 169). He, who equalled Yama himself in his knowledge of duties, made for him a bed of the *śāla* flowers, and offered him large fishes from the Bhāgīrathī, etc. Learning that he was desirous of going to the sea in order to earn wealth, he, quoting Bṛhaspati as to the fourfold means of earning wealth, directed him in the morning to his friend, the chief of the Rākṣasas, Virūpākṣa, about 3 *yojanas* away. Gautama reached the city of Merurvaja (description), and was welcomed by Virūpākṣa (XII, 170). Though not satisfied with Gautama's antecedents, Virūpākṣa, because Gautama was a brahman, and for the sake of Rājadharman, entertained him with the 1,000 brahmans that were selected to represent the V.-P., and the deities of fire. This he did every year on the Āṣāḍhī and Māghī, and especially on the Kārttiki, after the expiry of the autumn, giving away gold, jewels, etc.; on this one day there was no fear of Rā. Gautama came away with much wealth, and returned to Rājadharman, who welcomed him. Having no food to live on by the way, he thought of slaying Rājadharman (XII, 171). This he did; having plucked off the feathers and the down, he rousted the flesh, and taking it up together with the gold he had brought, he quickly fled from the spot. The next day Virūpākṣa became anxious because he had not for two mornings and two nights seen Rājadharman, who when returning from Brahmaloka every morning never went home without paying him a visit; he suspected that Gautama had slain him, and sent his son with other Rā. to inquire after him. Gautama was caught and brought to Merurvaja; as the Rā. refused to eat the flesh of that great sinner, he was hacked