{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/lcc/lcc07.htm","path":"hin/lcc/lcc07.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/lcc/lcc07.htm","text":"[Enter, with a cloak in his hand, Maitreya.]\nMaitreya.\nYOU must invite some other Brahman. I am busy.\" And yet I really ought to be seeking invitations from a stranger. Oh, what a wretched state of affairs! When good Ch\u0101rudatta was still wealthy, I used to eat my fill of the most deliciously fragrant sweetmeats, prepared day and night with the greatest of care. I would sit at the door of the courtyard, where I was surrounded by hundreds of dishes, and there, like a painter with his paint-boxes, I would simply touch them with my fingers and thrust them aside. I would stand chewing my cud like a bull in the city market. And now he is so poor that I have to run here, there, and everywhere, and come home, like the pigeons, only to roost. Now here is this jasmine-scented cloak, which Ch\u0101rudatta's good friend J\u016brnavriddha has sent him. He bade me give it to Ch\u0101rudatta, as soon as he had finished his devotions. So now I will look for Ch\u0101rudatta. [He walks about and looks around him.] Ch\u0101rudatta has finished his devotions, and here he comes with an offering for the divinities of the house.\n[Enter Ch\u0101rudatta as described, and Radanik\u0101.]\nCh\u0101rudatta. [Looking up and sighing wearily.]\n[He walks about very slowly and seats himself.]\nMaitreya. Ch\u0101rudatta is here. I must go and speak to him. [Approaching.] My greetings to you. May happiness be yours.\nCh\u0101rudatta. Ah, it is my constant friend Maitreya. You are very welcome, my friend. Pray be seated.\nMaitreya. Thank you. [He seats himself.] Well, comrade, here is a jasmine-scented cloak which your good friend J\u016brnavriddha has sent. He bade me give it you as soon as you had finished your devotions. [He presents the cloak. Ch\u0101rudatta takes it and remains sunk in thought.] Well, what are you thinking about?\nCh\u0101rudatta. My good friend,\nMaitreya. Well, which would you rather, be dead or be poor?\nCh\u0101rudatta. Ah, my friend,\nMaitreya. My dear friend, be not thus cast down. Your wealth has been conveyed to them you love, and like the moon, after she has yielded her nectar to the gods, your waning fortunes win an added charm.\nCh\u0101rudatta. Comrade, I do not grieve for my ruined fortunes. But\n\u00a0As flitting bees, the season o\u2019er,\n \u00a0Desert the elephant, whose store\n \u00a0Of ichor\u00a01 spent, attracts no more.12\nMaitreya. Oh, confound the money! It is a trifle not worth thinking about. It is like a cattle-boy in the woods afraid of wasps; it doesn't stay anywhere where it is used for food.\nCh\u0101rud. Believe me, friend. My sorrow does not spring\nThen too:\nMaitreya. But just remember what a trifle money is, after all, and be more cheerful.\nCh\u0101rudatta. My friend, the poverty of a man is to him\nComrade, I have made my offering to the divinities of the house. Do you too go and offer sacrifice to the Divine Mothers at a place where four roads meet.\nMaitreya. No!\nCh\u0101rudatta. Why not?\nMaitreya. Because the gods are not gracious to you even when thus honored. So what is the use of worshiping?\nCh\u0101rudatta. Not so, my friend, not so! This is the constant duty of a householder.\nWhy then do you hesitate? Go and offer sacrifice to the Mothers.\nMaitreya. No, I'm not going. You must send somebody else. Anyway, everything seems to go wrong with me, poor Brahman that I am! It's like a reflection in a mirror; the right side becomes the left, and the left becomes the right. Besides, at this hour of the evening, people are abroad upon the king's highway\u2014courtezans, courtiers, servants, and royal favorites. They will take me now for fair prey, just as the black-snake out frog-hunting snaps up the mouse in his path. But what will you do sitting here?\nCh\u0101rudatta. Good then, remain; and I will finish my devotions.\nVoices behind the scenes. Stop, Vasantasen\u0101, stop!\n[Enter Vasantasen\u0101, pursued by the courtier, by Sansth\u0101naka, and the servant.]\nCourtier. Vasantasen\u0101! Stop, stop!\nSansth\u0101naka. Shtop, 1 Vasantasen\u0101, shtop!\nServant. Stop, courtezan, stop!\nSansth\u0101naka. Shtop, Vasantasen\u0101, shtop!\nCourtier. Ah, Vasantasen\u0101,\nSansth\u0101naka. Lishten to me, shir!\nCourtier. As courtier's fingers strike the lute's tense string,\nSansth. Your jingling gems, girl, clink like anything;\nServant. He's the royal prot\u00e9g\u00e9;\nCourtier. Mistress Vasantasen\u0101,\nSansth. We're chasing you with all our main and might,\nVasantasen\u0101. Pallavaka! Parabhritik\u0101!\nSansth\u0101naka. Mashter! a man! a man!\nCourtier. Don't be a coward.\nVasantasen\u0101. M\u0101dhavik\u0101! M\u0101dhavik\u0101!\nCourtier. [Laughing.] Fool! She is calling her servants.\nSansth\u0101naka. Mashter! Is she calling a woman?\nCourtier. Why, of course.\nSansth\u0101naka. Women! I kill hundreds of \u2019em. I'm a brave man.\nVasantasen\u0101. [Seeing that no one answers.] Alas, how comes it that my very servants have fallen away from me? I shall have to defend myself by mother-wit.\nCourtier. Don't stop the search.\nSansth\u0101naka. Shqueal, Vasantasen\u0101, shqueal for your cuckoo Parabhritik\u0101, or for your blosshom Pallavaka or for all the month of May! Who's going to save you when I'm chasing you?\nLook, look!\nVasantasen\u0101. Sir, I am a weak woman.\nCourtier. That is why you are still alive.\nSansth\u0101naka. That is why you're not murdered.\nVasantasen\u0101. [Aside.] Oh! his very courtesy frightens me. Come, I will try this. [Aloud.] Sir, what do you expect from this pursuit? my jewels?\nCourtier. Heaven forbid! A garden creeper, mistress Vasantasen\u0101, should not be robbed of its blossoms. Say no more about the jewels.\nVasantasen\u0101. What is then your desire?\nSansth\u0101naka. I'm a man, a big man, a regular V\u0101sudeva. 1 You musht love me.\nVasantasen\u0101. [Indignantly.] Heavens! You weary me. Come, leave me! Your words are an insult.\nSansth\u0101naka. [Laughing and clapping his hands.] Look, mashter, look! The courtezan's daughter is mighty affectionate with me, isn't she? Here she says \"Come on! Heavens, you're weary. You're tired!\" No, I haven't been walking to another village or another city. No, little mishtress, I shwear by the gentleman's head, I shwear by my own feet! It's only by chasing about at your heels that I've grown tired and weary.\nCourtier. [Aside.] What! is it possible that the idiot does not understand when she says \"You weary me\"? [Aloud.] Vasantasen\u0101, your words have no place in the dwelling of a courtezan,\nAnd again:\nVasantasen\u0101. Yet true love would be won by virtue, not violence.\nSansth\u0101naka. But, mashter, ever since the shlave-wench went into the park where K\u0101ma's 1 temple shtands, she has been in love with a poor man, with Ch\u0101rudatta, and she doesn't love me any more. His house is to the left. Look out and don't let her shlip out of our hands.\nCourtier. [Aside.] Poor fool, he has said the very thing he should have concealed. So Vasantasen\u0101 is in love with Ch\u0101rudatta? The proverb is right. Pearl suits with pearl. Well, I have had enough of this fool. [Aloud.] Did you say the good merchant's house was to the left, you jackass?\nSansth\u0101naka. Yes. His house is to the left.\nVasantasen\u0101. [Aside.] Oh, wonderful! If his house is really at my left hand, then the scoundrel has helped me in the very act of hurting me, for he has guided me to my love.\nSansth\u0101naka. But mashter, it's pitch dark and it's like hunting for a grain of soot in a pile of shpotted beans. Now you shee Vasantasen\u0101 and now you don't.\nCourtier. Pitch dark it is indeed.\nSansth\u0101naka. Mashter, I'm looking for Vasantasen\u0101.\nCourtier. Is there anything you can trace her by, jackass?\nSansth\u0101naka. Like what, for inshtance?\nCourtier. Like the tinkling of her jewels, for instance, or the fragrance of her garlands.\nSansth\u0101naka. I hear the shmell of her garlands, but my nose is shtuffed so full of darkness that I don't shee the shound of her jewels very clearly.\nCourtier. [To Vasantasen\u0101. Aside.] Vasantasen\u0101,\nHave you heard me, Vasantasen\u0101?\nVasantasen\u0101. [To herself.] Heard and understood. [She removes the ankle-rings, lays aside the garlands, and takes a few steps, feeling her way.] I can feel the wall of the house, and here is a side-entrance. But alas! my fingers tell me that the door is shut.\nCh\u0101rudatta [who is within the house]. Comrade, my prayer is done. Go now and offer sacrifice to the Mothers.\nMaitreya. No, I'm not going.\nCh\u0101rudatta. Alas!\nWhere vulgar throngs are gathered, \u2019tis the same;\n His scanty raiment wakes his heartfelt shame.\n Five are the deadly sins\u00a01 we knew before;\n Alas! I find the sixth is\u2014to be poor.37\nAnd yet again:\nMaitreya. [Betraying his embarrassment.] Well, comrade, if I must go, at least let Radanik\u0101 go with me, to keep me company.\nCh\u0101rudatta. Radanik\u0101, you are to accompany Maitreya.\nRadanik\u0101. Yes, sir.\nMaitreya. Mistress Radanik\u0101, do you take the offering and the candle while I open the side-door. [He does so.]\nVasantasen\u0101. It seems as if the door took pity on me and opened of itself. I will lose no time, but enter. [She looks in.] What? a candle? Oh dear, oh dear! [She puts it out with her skirt and enters.]\nCh\u0101rudatta. What was that, Maitreya?\nMaitreya. I opened the side-door and the wind came through all in a lump and blew out the candle. Suppose you go out by the side-door, Radanik\u0101, and I will follow as soon as I have gone into the courtyard and lighted the candle again.\n[Exit.\nSansth\u0101naka. Mashter! mashter! I'm looking for Vasantasen\u0101.\nCourtier. Keep on looking, keep on looking!\nSansth\u0101naka. [Does so.] Mashter! mashter! I've caught her! I've caught her!\nCourtier. Idiot, you've caught me.\nSansth\u0101naka. You shtand right here, mashter, and shtay where you're put. [He renews the search and seizes the servant.] Mashter!\nmashter! I've caught her! I've caught her!\nServant. Master, you've caught me, your servant.\nSansth\u0101naka. Mashter here, shervant here! Mashter, shervant; shervant, mashter. Now shtay where you're put, both of you. [He renews the search and seizes Radanik\u0101 by the hair.] Mashter! mashter! Thish time I've caught her! I've caught Vasantasen\u0101!\nCourtier. Ah, proud to be so young, so fair!\nSansth. I've got your head, girl, got it tight,\nRadanik\u0101. [In terror.] Oh, sirs, what does this mean?\nCourtier. You jackass! It's another voice.\nSansth\u0101naka. Mashter, the wench has changed her voice, the way a cat changes her voice, when she wants shome cream of curdled milk.\nCourtier. Changed her voice? Strange! Yet why so strange?\n[Enter Maitreya.]\nMaitreya. Look! In the gentle evening breeze the flame of the candle is fluttering like the heart of a goat that goes to the altar. [He approaches and discovers Radanik\u0101.] Mistress Radanik\u0101!\nSansth\u0101naka. Mashter, mashter! A man! a man!\nMaitreya. This is right, this is perfectly right, that strangers should force their way into the house, just because Ch\u0101rudatta is poor.\nRadanik\u0101. Oh, Maitreya, see how they insult me.\nMaitreya. What! insult you? No, they are insulting us.\nRadanik\u0101. Very well. They are insulting you, then.\nMaitreya. But they aren't using violence?\nRadanik\u0101. Yes, yes!\nMaitreya. Really?\nRadanik\u0101. Really.\nMaitreya. [Raising his staff angrily.] No, sir! Man, a dog will show his teeth in his own kennel, and I am a Brahman! My staff is crooked as my fortunes, but it can still split a dry bamboo or a rascal's pate.\nCourtier. Have mercy, O great Brahman, have mercy.\nMaitreya. [Discovers the courtier.] He is not the sinner. [Discovers Sansth\u0101naka.] Ah, here is the sinner. Well, you brother-in-law to the king, Sansth\u0101naka, you scoundrel, you coward, this is perfectly proper, isn't it? Ch\u0101rudatta the good is a poor man now\u2014true, but are not his virtues an ornament to Ujjayin\u012b? And so men break into his house and insult his servants!\nCourtier. [Betraying his embarrassment.] Have mercy, O great Brahman, have mercy. We intended no insolence; we merely mistook this lady for another. For\nMaitreya. What! this one?\nCourtier. Heaven forbid!\nI pray you, accept this all-in-all of humblest supplication. [He drops his sword, folds his hands, and falls at Maitreya's feet.]\nMaitreya. Good man, rise, rise. When I reviled you, I did not know you. Now I know you and I ask your pardon.\nCourtier. It is I who should ask pardon. I will rise on one condition.\nMaitreya. And that is\u2014\nCourtier. That you will not tell Ch\u0101rudatta what has happened here.\nMaitreya. I will be silent.\nCourtier. Brahman, this gracious act of thine\nSansth\u0101naka. [Indignantly.] But mashter, what makes you fold your hands sho helplesshly and fall at the feet of thish manikin?\nCourtier. I was afraid.\nSansth\u0101naka. What were you afraid of?\nCourtier. Of Ch\u0101rudatta's virtues.\nSansth\u0101naka. Virtues? He? You can go into his houshe and not find a thing to eat.\nCourtier. No, no.\nSansth\u0101naka. [Impatiently.] Who is the shon of a shlave-wench anyway?\nCourtier. Fool! I will tell you who Ch\u0101rudatta is.\nLet us be gone.\nSansth\u0101naka. Without Vasantasen\u0101?\nCourtier. Vasantasen\u0101 has disappeared.\nSansth\u0101naka. How?\nCourtier. Like sick men's strength, or like the blind man's sight,\nSansth\u0101naka. I'm not going without Vasantasen\u0101.\nCourtier. And did you never hear this?\nSansth\u0101naka. If you're going, go along. I'm not going.\nCourtier. Very well. I will go.\nSansth\u0101naka. Mashter's gone, sure enough. [To Maitreya.] Well, you man with the head that looks like a caret, you manikin, take a sheat, take a sheat.\nMaitreya. We have already been invited to take a seat.\nSansth\u0101naka. By whom?\nMaitreya. By destiny.\nSansth\u0101naka. Shtand up, then, shtand up!\nMaitreya. We shall.\nSansth\u0101naka. When?\nMaitreya. When fate is kind again.\nSansth\u0101naka. Weep, then, weep!\nMaitreya. We have wept.\nSansth\u0101naka. Who made you?\nMaitreya. Poverty.\nSansth\u0101naka. Laugh, then, laugh!\nMaitreya. Laugh we shall.\nMaitreya. When Ch\u0101rudatta is happy once more.\nSansth\u0101naka. You manikin, give poor little Ch\u0101rudatta thish messhage from me. \"Thish wench with golden ornaments and golden jewels, thish female shtage-manager looking after the rehearsal of a new play, thish Vasantasen\u0101\u2014she has been in love with you ever shince she went into the park where K\u0101ma's temple shtands. And when we tried to conciliate her by force, she went into your houshe. Now if you shend her away yourshelf and hand her over to me, if you reshtore her at once, without any lawshuit in court, then I'll be friends with you forever. But if you don't reshtore her, there will be a fight to the death.\" Remember:\nTell it to him prettily, tell it to him craftily. Tell it to him sho that I can hear it as I roosht in the dove-cote on the top of my own palace. If you shay it different, I'll chew your head like an apple caught in the crack of a door.\nMaitreya. Very well. I shall tell him.\nSansth\u0101naka. [Aside.] Tell me, shervant. Is mashter really gone?\nServant. Yes, sir.\nSansth\u0101naka. Then we will go as quickly as we can.\nServant. Then take your sword, master.\nSansth\u0101naka. You can keep it.\nServant. Here it is, master. Take your sword, master.\nSansth\u0101naka. [Taking it by the wrong end.]\n[Sansth\u0101naka and the servant walk about, then exeunt.\nMaitreya. Mistress Radanik\u0101, you must not tell good Ch\u0101rudatta of this outrage. I am sure you would only add to the poor man's sorrows.\nRadanik\u0101. Good Maitreya, you know Radanik\u0101. Her lips are sealed.\nMaitreya. So be it.\nCh\u0101rudatta. [To Vasantasen\u0101.] Radanik\u0101, Rohasena likes the fresh air, but he will be cold in the evening chill. Pray bring him into the house, and cover him with this mantle. [He gives her the mantle.]\nVasantasen\u0101. [To herself.] See! He thinks I am his servant. [She takes the mantle and perceives its perfume. Ardently to herself.] Oh, beautiful! The mantle is fragrant with jasmine. His youthful days are not wholly indifferent to the pleasures of the world. [She wraps it about her, without letting Ch\u0101rudatta see.]\nCh\u0101rudatta. Come, Radanik\u0101, take Rohasena and enter the heart of the house.\nVasantasen\u0101. [To herself.] Ah me unhappy, that have little part or lot in your heart!\nCh\u0101rudatta. Come, Radanik\u0101, will you not even answer? Alas!\nMaitreya. [Drawing near to Radanik\u0101.] Sir, here is Radanik\u0101.\nCh\u0101rudatta. Here is Radanik\u0101? Who then is this\u2014\nVasantasen\u0101. [To herself.] Say rather \"consecrated.\"\nCh\u0101rudatta.\nBut no! I may not gaze upon another's wife.\nMaitreya. Oh, you need not fear that you are looking at another man's wife. This is Vasantasen\u0101, who has been in love with you ever since she saw you in the garden where K\u0101ma's temple stands.\nCh\u0101rudatta. What! this is Vasantasen\u0101? [Aside.]\nMaitreya. My friend, that brother-in-law of the king says\u2014\nCh\u0101rudatta. Well?\nMaitreya. \"This wench with golden ornaments and golden jewels, this female stage-manager looking after the rehearsal of a new play, this Vasantasen\u0101\u2014she has been in love with you ever since she went into the park where K\u0101ma's temple stands. And when we tried to conciliate her by force, she went into your house.\"\nVasantasen\u0101. [To herself.] \"Tried to conciliate me by force\"\u2014truly, I am honored by these words.\nMaitreya. \"Now if you send her away yourself and hand her over to me, if you restore her at once, without any lawsuit in court, then I'll be friends with you forever. Otherwise, there will be a fight to the death.\"\nCh\u0101rudatta. [Contemptuously.] He is a fool. [To himself.] How is this maiden worthy of the worship that we pay a goddess! For now\n[Aloud.] Mistress Vasantasen\u0101, I have unwittingly made myself guilty of an offense; for I greeted as a servant one whom I did not recognize. I bend my neck to ask your pardon.\nVasantasen\u0101. It is I who have offended by this unseemly intrusion. I bow my head to seek your forgiveness.\nMaitreya. Yes, with your pretty bows you two have knocked your heads together, till they look like a couple of rice-fields. I also bow my head like a camel colt's knee and beseech you both to stand up. [He does so, then rises.]\nCh\u0101rudatta. Very well, let us no longer trouble ourselves with conventions.\nVasantasen\u0101. [To herself.] What a delightfully clever hint! But it would hardly be proper to spend the night, considering how I\ncame hither. Well, I will at least say this much. [Aloud.] If I am to receive thus much of your favor, sir, I should be glad to leave these jewels in your house. It was for the sake of the jewels that those scoundrels pursued me.\nCh\u0101rudatta. This house is not worthy of the trust.\nVasantasen\u0101. You mistake, sir! It is to men that treasures are entrusted, not to houses.\nCh\u0101rudatta. Maitreya, will you receive the jewels?\nVasantasen\u0101. I am much indebted to you. [She hands him the jewels.]\nMaitreya. [Receiving them.] Heaven bless you, madam.\nCh\u0101rudatta. Fool! They are only entrusted to us.\nMaitreya. [Aside.] Then the thieves may take them, for all I care.\nCh\u0101rudatta. In a very short time\u2014\nMaitreya. What she has entrusted to us, belongs to us.\nCh\u0101rudatta. I shall restore them.\nVasantasen\u0101. I should be grateful, sir, if this gentleman would accompany me home.\nCh\u0101rudatta. Maitreya, pray accompany our guest.\nMaitreya. She walks as gracefully as a female swan, and you are the gay flamingo to accompany her. But I am only a poor Brahman, and wherever I go, the people will fall upon me just as dogs will snap at a victim dragged to the cross-roads.\nCh\u0101rudatta. Very well. I will accompany her myself. Let the torches be lighted, to ensure our safety on the highway.\nMaitreya. Vardham\u0101naka, light the torches.\nVardham\u0101naka. [Aside to Maitreya.] What! light torches without oil?\nMaitreya. [Aside to Ch\u0101rudatta.] These torches of ours are like courtezans who despise their poor lovers. They won't light up unless you feed them.\nCh\u0101rudatta. Enough, Maitreya! We need no torches. See, we have a lamp upon the king's highway.\n[His voice betraying his passion.] Mistress Vasantasen\u0101, we have reached your home. Pray enter. [Vasantasen\u0101 gazes ardently at him, then exit.] Comrade, Vasantasen\u0101 is gone. Come, let us go home.\n[He walks about.] And you shall guard this golden casket by night, and Vardham\u0101naka by day.\nMaitreya. Very well.\n[Exeunt ambo.\n7:1 During the mating season, a fragrant liquor exudes from the forehead of the elephant. Of this liquor bees are very fond.\n9:1 The most striking peculiarity of Sansth\u0101naka's dialect\u2014his substitution of sh for s\u2014I have tried to imitate in the translation.\n10:1 Red arsenic, used as a cosmetic.\n10:2 Here, as elsewhere, Sansth\u0101naka's mythology is wildly confused. To a Hindu the effect must be ludicrous enough; but the humor is necessarily lost in a translation. It therefore seems hardly worth while to explain his mythological vagaries in detail.\n13:1 A name of Krishna, who is perhaps the most amorous character in Indian story.\n14:1 Cupid.\n16:1 The five deadly sins are: the slaying of a Brahman, the drinking of wine, theft, adultery with the wife of one's teacher, and association with one guilty of these crimes.\n17:1 These are all epithets of the same god.\n23:1 Which look pretty, but do not rain. He doubtless means to suggest that the cloak, belonging to a strange man, is as useless to Vasantasen\u0101 as the veil of autumn clouds to the earth.","title":"The Little Clay Cart: Act the First: The Gems Are Left Behind","type":"page"}