The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

65 - How Far Historical in Character?
extremity of hunger, to eat dog’s flesh; and Agni’s love to the wives of
the seven rishis. 23
There is another reference of importance to another department of
Sanskrit literature. There is a reference in canto XV to
Yaugandharāyaṇa’s appearing as a diseased beggar in the town of
Ujjain, the capital of Pradhyota to release from prison his sovereign,
the Vatsa king Udayana. He is referred to as the Brahman Yūhi. This
source elsewhere. The incident alluded to here is found described in
the same detail in Somadēva’s Kathāsarit Sāgara and in the [31]
Pratijña-Yaugandharāyaṇa of the dramatist Bhāsa (lines 60 to 66).
There is another important reference to a peculiar custom of the Cōḻa
royal family which regarded Cōḻa princes dying a natural death as old
men, disgraceful. 24 When prince Udayakumāra had fallen by the
sword of the Vidyādhara, an old woman of the city by name
Vāsantikā (Vāsantavai) went to the queen and offered her
consolation. Admonishing her not to show her sorrow as a mother for
the death of the son in the presence of the king, she explained to her
as a feature of the Cōḻa royal family that members of that
distinguished family rarely died a natural death as old men; when by
chance they did so without falling in battle, attacking the enemy and
carrying on an aggressive war, or resisting an invasion by the enemy
in defence of the kingdom, the dead bodies of such were laid solemnly
over a bed of kuśa grass (Poa cynosuroides) by Brahmans who cut the
body and quartered it as a symbol of their having fallen in battle. This
ceremony, according to the current belief of the times, ushered them
23 XVIII, ll. 92-97, M.Bh. iii. 224-26
24 XXII, ll. 11-16