The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

196 - Āputra’s Birth
They said to him that he was talking contemptuously of sacrifices
without understanding the prescribed path of the Vēda, which it is
clear he did not know. Hence it is but proper, they said that he was
called ‘Cow’s son’. 97
the revered of the wise, was the son of a fox. Are these not Rishis
accepted of your tribe? If so, as you will admit it is so, is there much
that is contemptible in being born of a cow?’
On hearing this one among the Brahmans said that he knew the actual
birth and parentage of the boy, and related the story of how he was
born of Śāli, the Brahman woman of Benares, as he had heard it from
herself. The Brahman said that he [145] did not care hitherto to speak
about this, as it was no use doing it. It is now clear that by his conduct
he justified the sinistral character of his birth.
To this the boy retorted again by pointing out that both Vaśiṣṭa and
Agastya were born of the heavenly courtesan Tilōttamā.
‘If so why talk of my mother Śāli,’ making the innuendo that Śāli was
an alternative name of Arundhatī, the model of chastity?
But this dispute had its effect, however, in that his foster-father Bhūti
cast him out as of unclean birth, and as it came noised abroad that he
stole the sacrificial cow, he no more got alms in Brahman villages.
Finding himself at the end of his resources, he came to Southern
Madura, and made the front yard of the temple of the Goddess of
Learning there, his abode.
97 (Aputran).