INDIAN PHILOSOPHY

COMPLETE WORKS OF DR K.C.VARADACHARI – VOL10
expression or rather self expression of each character
within the story and the personal touch maintains
interest in the story as a whole. The story of Kadambari
is a complex one, but the main features of the story can
be briefly outlined.
There was a king named Sudraka. Into his court
a woman of the caste of the chandalas (outcastes)
brings a parrot gifted with speech. This parrot is
induced by the king to tell its tale. It narrates that it was
reared by its father-parrot while yet a stripling. One day
a hunter caught all the parrots on the tree where they
dwelt. The father-parrot was killed but the young one
escaped death. It was picked up by a hermit belonging
to the Ashrama of Rishi Jabali, out of pity and
compassion. When it was placed before the Rishi, the
Rishi gifted with prescience narrated to his disciples the
story of the parrot how out of karma it had become a
parrot. Because of its foolishness on its previous lives,
it fell down to its present low place. This story is
faithfully narrated by the parrot to the king Sudraka.
Tarapida, king of Ujjayini, had a wife Vilasavati,
and a brahman minister named Sukanasa. By Siva’s
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