Tripura Rahasya

Sage Dattatreya

At the same time, Varuna, the God of waters, wanted to perform a similar sacrifice, but worthy men did not accept the invitation. Then Varuna's son, who was a great dialectician, came to them. He disguised himself as a Brahmin, in order to decoy the Brahmin guests. On entering the royal chamber he duly blessed the king and addressed him: "O King, your assembly is not as good as it should be. It looks like a lovely lake of lotuses ravaged by crows, jackdaws and herons; it would be better without this medley of incompetents. I do not find a single individual who will be an ornament to a great assembly like a swan to a lovely lake of lotuses. May God bless you! I shall have nothing to do with this multitude of fools."

Being thus insulted by Varuna's son, the whole assembly stood up to the man and said in anger: "You charlatan of a Brahmin! How dare you insult everybody here? What learning have you which is wanting in us? Wicked man that you are, you are only a bluffer! You shall not leave this place until you have proved your superiority over us. There are great pundits assembled here from all over the world. Do you hope to subdue all of them by your learning? Tell us your special subject in which you imagine yourself more proficient than us!"

Varuni replied: "I will in a minute outdo you all in debate; but that shall be only on the condition that if I am defeated, you will throw me into the sea; and if you are defeated, I will consign you to the sea, one after another. If you agree to this condition, let us have a debate."

They consented and the debate began in right earnest. The pundits were shortly defeated by the fallacious logic of the opponent and they were sunk in the sea by hundreds. Varuna's followers then took away the sunken pundits to his sacrifice where they were received with respect, which much pleased them.

There was one by name Kahoela, among those who were thus sunk. His son ashtavakra, having heard of his father's fate, hastened to Janaka's court and challenged the debater skilled in fallacy. The masquerader was now defeated and straightaway condemned to the sea by the young avenger. Then Varuni threw off his mask in the court and restored back all the men formerly drowned in the sea. Kahoela's son was now puffed with pride and behaved offensively before the assembled court. The pundits were made to feel mortified before the youth.

(To be continued)