p
teeth. The little that remains of that single thread will soon be cut
away. It is clear ye shall then have to fall down into this pit with
faces downwards. Seeing you with faces downwards, and overtaken by this
great calamity, my pity hath been excited. What good can I do to you.
Tell me quickly whether this calamity can be averted by a fourth, a
third, or even by the sacrifice of a half of this my asceticism, O,
relieve yourselves even with the whole of my asceticism. I consent to all
this. Do ye as ye please.'

"The Pitris said, 'Venerable Brahmacharin, thou desirest to relieve us.
But, O foremost of Brahmanas, thou canst not dispel our affliction by thy
asceticism. O child, O first of speakers, we too have the fruits of our
asceticism. But, O Brahmana, it is for the loss of children that we are
falling down into this unholy hell. The grandsire himself hath said that
a son is a great merit. As we are about to be cast in this hole, our
ideas are no longer clear. Therefore, O child, we know thee not, although
thy manhood is well-known on earth. Venerable thou art and of good
fortune, thou who thus from kindness grievest for us worthy of pity and
greatly afflicted. O Brahmana, listen, who we are. We are Rishis of the
Yayavara sect, of rigid vows. And, O Muni, from loss of children, we have
fallen down from a sacred region. Our severe penances have not been
destroyed; we have a thread yet. But we have only one thread now. It
matters little, however, whether he is or is not. Unfortunate as we are,
we have a thread in one, known as Jaratkaru. The unfortunate one has gone
through the Vedas and their branches and is practising asceticism alone.
He being one with soul under complete control, desires set high,
observant of vows, deeply engaged in ascetic penances, and free from
greed for the merits or asceticism, we have been reduced to this
deplorable state. He hath no wife, no son, no relatives. Therefore, do we
hang in this hole, our consciousness lost, like men having none to take
care of them. If thou meetest him, O, tell him, from thy kindness to
ourselves, Thy Pitris, in sorrow, are hanging with faces downwards in a
hole. Holy one, take a wife and beget children. O thou of ascetic wealth,
thou art, O amiable one, the only thread that remaineth in the line of
thy ancestors. O Brahmana, the cord of virana roots that thou seest we
are hanging by, is the cord representing our multiplied race. And, O
Brahmana, these threads