Baal Kaanda
33 - The story of king Pratapabhanu
Chaupais
Description
The king went to sleep in obedience to the hermit; while the counterfeit sage returned to his own seat and sat down there. Deep sleep came upon the weary monarch; but how could the other fellow sleep, distracted as he was with anxiety. The demon Kalaketu made his appearance there; it was he who had assumed the form of a boar and led the king astray. A great friend of the hermit-king, he was skilled in manifold ways of deceit. He had a hundred sons and ten brothers, who were great villains, invincible and annoying to the gods. Seeing the Brahmanas, saints and gods in distress the king had already killed them all in battle. Recalling the old grudge the wretch conspired with the hermit-king and contrived a plot for the extermination of the enemy; but, as fate would have it, the king knew nothing of it.