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SUMMARY OF CONTENTS
 
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in person, took her to (an agrahāra on) the banks of the river

Godāvarī where her son Vararuci was born. When Vararuci

was five years old, two Brahmans, Vyāḍi and Indradatta, hap-

pened to halt at his house. The boy Vararuci who had gone to

witness a dance returned home late in the night. The mother

got angry and asked him to show her all that he had seen.

The boy enacted the entire performance exactly as he had

seen it. The two Brahmans were astonished and found in

Vararuci the precocious boy they had been seeking. Then

Vyādi related his story to the boy's mother:
 

 
(Av. Sāra IV. 21-27; Av. pp. 179-80)
 

 
Story of Vyadi
 
āḍi
 
'Good Lady, I am a Brahman named Vyādi, son of

Bhānu. I was the only son of my parents and pet of my

mother; my father did not put me to education and

married me to a beautiful girl (named Brahmadā).

Once when I was painting her foot with unguent, a hermit

came to my house begging for alms. He looked at my wife

and smiled, and she in her turn smiled at him and gave him

alms. When I pressed her to tell me what made them smile at

each other, she said: 'I was a rat in my former birth and was

brought up by this holy man. One day, he started on a pilgrim-

age to the river Gangaṅgā and I entered into his bag stealthily.

When he began to bathe, a hawk took me by the beak but

dropped me into the river. In consequence of my death in

the holy waters (and devotion to the ascetic) I am now born

in a Brahman family. The hermit remembered my past; and

seeing your affection towards me smiled.' As she said this,

she fainted and died. I fell into a sea of sorrow. The

hermit (entered into the body of my wife), gave me instruc-

tions in yoga, (created in me an aversion for wordly attach-

ment) and initiated me in the order of ascetics. As I could

not speak correctly in an assembly of learned ascetics, I was

ridiculed as an ignorant yogin. I hastened to the shrine of

Subrahmanya and practised austerities. The God asked me
to find out a S

to find out a Ś
rutadhara (one who retains what is heard once)

and along with him receive instruction under Upavarşa. We

have long been searching for a Śrutadhara and fortunately

found one in your son today.' When Vyādi finished his

story, Indradatta began his own.
 

 
(Av. Sāra IV. 27-36; Av. pp. 180-81)