“Ask, ask, indeed; but tell me, sir, when has it come to giving and taking? You once promised me two boons, and yet I doubt my getting them.”
The king replied with a smile: “I see what you mean, you are very fond of a little quarrel. You kept my promise in reserve and asked for nothing, and as my way is, I forgot all about it. Do not tax me with the guilt of a lie, but for two requests make four and you shall have them. It is an immemorial rule in the Raghu family to lose life rather than break a promise. No number of sins is equal to a lie; in the same way as myriads of ghuncki seeds will not make a mountain. Truth is the foundation of all merit and virtue, as the Vedas and Purânas declare and as Manu has expounded. Moreover I have sworn by Râma, the chief of our house, the perfection of all that is good and amiable.” When she had thus bound him to his word, the wicked queen smiled and cried—loosing as it were the bandage from the eyes of her hawk-like plot:
The king replied with a smile: “I see what you mean, you are very fond of a little quarrel. You kept my promise in reserve and asked for nothing, and as my way is, I forgot all about it. Do not tax me with the guilt of a lie, but for two requests make four and you shall have them. It is an immemorial rule in the Raghu family to lose life rather than break a promise. No number of sins is equal to a lie; in the same way as myriads of ghuncki seeds will not make a mountain. Truth is the foundation of all merit and virtue, as the Vedas and Purânas declare and as Manu has expounded. Moreover I have sworn by Râma, the chief of our house, the perfection of all that is good and amiable.” When she had thus bound him to his word, the wicked queen smiled and cried—loosing as it were the bandage from the eyes of her hawk-like plot: