LONG,long ago
there was a great emperor in our country. His name was Shibi. He was a very good and
learned man. Once he did a yaga. The Gods Agni
and Indra wanted to bless Shibi. But before doing so, they wanted to test him to see how
good he was.
Agni took the form of a dove and Indra, the form of a
hawk.Now the dove and the hawk are both birds; but the hawk is a cruel bird. It kills
other birds and eats them. In olden days kings trained hawks and used them for catching
other birds.They practised this as a sport.
The hawk in the story started chasing the dove. Greatly
frightened of the hawk, and to save its life, the dove flew as fast as it could in the air
but eventually became so tired that it fell in the lap of Emperor Shibi. The dove's body
shivered in fear.
Shibi stroked the bird gently to allay itsfear. When the
hawk appeared before him, he quickly hid the dove beneath his upper garment. |