पूर्वं तावद् अहं मूर्खो द्वितीयः पशु-बन्धकः ।
ततो राजा च मन्त्री च सर्वं वै मूर्ख-मण्डलम् ॥ २१६ ॥
pūrvaṃ tāvad ahaṃ mūrkho dvitīyaḥ paśu-bandhakaḥ |
tato rājā ca mantrī ca sarvaṃ vai mūrkha-maṇḍalam || 216 ||
Firstly, I am a fool. The second fool is the one with the snare. The king and his ministers are also fools, and so it seems that this is truly an assembly of fools!
The ministers asked him “Why do you say so?”
Raktāksha replied…
स्वर्णपुरीषपक्षिकथा
The story of the bird with the golden droppings
In a range of mountains not so far away from here, was a huge tree. A bird named Sindhuka lived on that tree. it’s droppings used to turn into gold.
One day, a hunter, who was wandering in the nearby forest, came across this bird, and saw the droppings turn into gold in front of his own eyes. “Unbelievable!” he thought to himself. “In all my eighty years of hunting, I have never come across such a sight! A bird whose droppings turn into gold!”
And so he tied his snare to the tree, and waited in the bushes. Sindhuka, not suspecting anything untoward, flew down and got caught in the snare. The hunter darted out of the bushes, put Sindhuka in a cage, and started to make his way home.
On the way, he again thought to himself “This bird is strange, and will surely put me in danger. What if someone sees it and finds out it’s speciality and reports it to the king? I would not be left alive then. And so it’s better if I go and present this bird to the king myself.”
The king’s eyes lit up. The hunter stood in front of him with the bird, and had just described what the bird could do. “This bird is rare!” he exclaimed, as he gestured to his servants. “Take this bird away, and take good care of it. in fact, let it stay in my royal chambers!”
Hearing this, his minister stopped the servants, and said “My king! Why do you trust the words of a lowly hunter and keep this bird in a cage? Have you ever heard of bird droppings turning into gold?” He laughed aloud. “This man is a cheat, and this bird is no different than the others. Release the bird from the cage.”
And so Sindhuka was released, and he flew up to the colorful parapet on the entrance of the assembly hall. As he sat there, his droppings fell to the floor and turned into gold. Before turning around and flying away, Sindhuka said – पूर्वं तावद् अहं मूर्खो द्वितीयः पशु-बन्धकः । ततो राजा च मन्त्री च सर्वं वै मूर्ख-मण्डलम् ॥
“That is why I say – Firstly, I am a fool. The second fool is the one with the snare. The king and his ministers are also fools, and so it seems that this is truly an assembly of fools!“, concluded Raktāksha.