XIX. Cosquin Cont ind. 136

THE CONQUEST OF FATE.

Best Short Stories, 301/

In the Dakshinadêśa there lived a Brâhmin boywho from his childhood was given a very liberaleducation in Sanskrit. He had read so much inphilosophy that before he reached the sixteenth yearof his life he began to despise the pleasures of theworld. Everything which he saw was an illusion( mithya) to him. So he resolved to renounce theworld and to go to a forest, there to meet with somegreat sage, and pass his days with him in peace andhappiness.

Having thus made up his mind, he left his homeone day without the knowledge of his parents andtravelled towards the Dandakâranya. After wander-ing for a long time in that impenetrable forest, andundergoing all the miseries of a wood inhabitedonly by wild beasts, he reached the banks of theTungabhadrâ. His sufferings in his wanderings ina forest untrodden by human feet, his loneliness inthe midst of wild beasts, his fears whether afterall he had not failed in his search for consolation in