r from Mr. C. H. Tawney:--

"I have been looking up the story of 'Haricchandra.' It is to be found
in Muir, vol. I. He gives a summary of it from the _Marka[n.][d.]eya
Pura[n.]a_. It is also found in the 'Chanda Kaucikam,' and in Mutu
Coomara Swamy's 'Martyr of Truth.' The following is Muir's summary
summarized. Haricchandra was a king who lived in the Treta age, and
was renowned for his virtue, and for the universal prosperity, moral
and physical, which prevailed during his reign. One day he heard a
sound of female lamentation which proceeded from the Sciences who were
becoming mastered by the austere Sage, Vicvamitra, in a way they had
never been before. He rushed to their assistance as a Kshatriya bound
to succour the oppressed. By a haughty speech he provoked Vicvamitra,
and in consequence of his wrath the Sciences instantly perished. (In
the 'Chanda Kaucikam,' as far as I remember, we are told that the
anger of Vicvamitra interfered with the success of his austerity.) The
king says he had only done his duty as a king, which involves the
bestowal of gifts on Brahmans and the succour of the weak. Vicvamitra
thereupon demands from the king as a gift the whole earth, everything
but himself, his son, and his wife. The king gives it him. Then
Vicvamitra demands his sacrificial fee; the king goes to Benares,
followed by the relentless Sage, the ruler of Civa, and is compelled
to sell his wife. She is bought by a rich old Brahman. The son cries
and the Brahman buys him too. But Haricchandra has not enough, even
now, to satisfy Vicvamitra, so he sells himself to a Cha[n.][d.]ala,
who is really Dharma, the god of righteousness. The Cha[n.][d.]ala
(man of the lowest caste), carries off the king, bound, beaten, and
confused. The Cha[n.][d.]ala sends him to steal clothes in a cemetery.
There he lives twelve months. His wife comes to the cemetery to
perform the obsequies of her son, who had died from the bite of a
serpent. The two determine to burn themselves with the corpse of their
son. When Haricchandra, after placing his son on the funeral pyre, is
meditating on the Supreme Spirit, the lord Hari Naraya[n.]a
Krish[n.]a, all the gods arrive headed by Dharma (righteousness) and
accompanied by Vicvamitra. Dharma entreats the king to desist from his
rash enterprise, and Indra announces to him that he, his wife, and his
son have gained heaven by their good works. Ambrosia and flowers are
rained by the god from the sky, and the kin