Indra puts off the form of a dove and resumes his god-like shape. What,
he asks, does the king desire? Would he be universal monarch? Would he
be king of the Genii? _Would he be Indra?_ There is a fine touch in this
offer from the god of his godship to the heroic man, and, like most
Buddhist amplifications of older legends, it might be justified from
Brahmanical sources, as by incredible self-denial it was always held to
be possible to dethrone a god and put oneself in his place. But Sivi
replies that the only state he craves is that of a Buddha. Indra
inquires if no shade of regret crosses the king’s mind when he feels the
anguish reaching to his bones? The king replies, “I regret nothing.”
“How can I believe it,” says Indra, “when thy body trembles and shivers
so that thou canst hardly speak?” Sivi repeats that from beginning to
end he has felt no shadow of regret; all has happened as he wished. In
proof that he speaks truth, may his body be as whole as before! He had
scarcely spoken when the miracle was effected, and in the same instant
King Sivi became a Buddha.
There is a Russian folk-tale which seems to belong to this cycle. A
horse which was ill-treated and half-starved saves the child of one of
his masters from a bear. He has a friend, a cat, who is also
half-starved. After he has saved the child he is better fed and he gives
the cat part of his food. The masters notice this and again ill-treat
him. He resolves to kill himself so that the cat may eat him, but the
cat will not eat her friend and resolves to die likewise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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