In this way the king moaned within himself. Seeing his bad plight the wicked queen sulked within her heart and said, “Is Bharata not your son? And have you bought me in consideration of money? If my words pierced you like arrows the moment they entered your ears, why should you not make promises after careful thought? Either say yes to my proposal or decline. You are true to your promise (more than anyone else) in the race of Raghu. Refuse the boons you promised me; abandon truth and court infamy in the world. Loud in your praise of truth you promised me a couple of boons, imagining of course that I would ask for a handful of parched grain. Ýibi,* Dadh¶ci † and Bali ‡ and Agni (the god of fire) to put his generosity to the test. Agni took the form of a pigeon and Indra appeared as a hawk. While the king was sitting in his court the pigeon flew into the hall and hid in his lap. The hawk too followed him; and while the pigeon sought his protection against the hawk, the latter insisted that the pigeon was its lawful spoil and should be made over to it. The king, who knew his duty, resolved to save the pigeon’s life at all costs; for as a true Kƒatriya he could not betray one who had sought shelter with him. At the same time he recognized the validity of the hawk’s claim and did not want to rob it of food which it had fairly won and without which it would die of starvation. The king offered the hawk anything else that it chose to name; but the hawk would be satisfied with nothing short of an equal weight of the king’s own flesh. Scales were accordingly brought; and while the pigeon was put in one balance the king chopped his flesh with his own hands and put it in the other. But even though the monarch hacked and hewed large pieces of flesh from his muscular body, the pigeon outweighed them all. The king at last bodily mounted the balance and was just going to sever his head when Indra and Agni appeared in their own celestial forms, and interposed. They blessed the king and made him whole again. Viƒ˜u and sought His protection. God Viƒ˜u told them that there was a great saint named Dadh¶ci practising penance in the Naimiƒa forest, and that if he would let them have his bones they could be made into weapon, before which no enemy could stand. Dadh¶ci, as soon as he heard what they wanted, gave up his ghost and out of his bones ViÜvakarmŒ, the artisan of the gods, made a thunderbolt with which Indra easily dispatched V¾tra. custed the gods from heaven. The mother of the gods, Aditi, prayed to Lord Viƒ˜u for relief and the latter was born as a son to Aditi in the form of a dwarf (VŒmana). The dwarf appeared before Bali and as a BrŒhma˜a boy asked for alms. The demon-king promised to give him whatever He asked. BhagavŒn VŒmana said He wanted only as much land as could be measured in three strides. King Bali, who was noted for his generosity, granted the BrŒhma˜a’s request at once. The divine Dwarf now assumed colossal dimensions; in one stride redeemed their plighted word maintaining whatever they said even at the cost of their life and possessions.” In this way Kaikey¶ uttered most pungent words as though applying salt to a burn. (1—4)