tasya sādhor apāpasya
My lord, aware of the religious principles! As a son never deserves to be killed by his father, how can the best of sages among brāhmaṇas be killed by you, the best of saintly kings?
Te mean “by you.”
|| 9.9.31 ||
tasya sādhor apāpasya
bhrūṇasya brahma-vādinaḥ
kathaṁ vadhaṁ yathā babhror
manyate san-mato bhavān
You are well respected. How can you kill this brāhmaṇa, who is a saintly, sinless person, having a son, who is well versed in Vedic knowledge? This is like killing a cow.
This brāhmaṇa is learned in the Vedas and has a son (bhrūnasya). Amara-koṣa says bhrūṇa means a young boy or an embryo. Babhroḥ means “of a cow.”
|| 9.9.32 ||
yady ayaṁ kriyate bhakṣyas
tarhi māṁ khāda pūrvataḥ
na jīviṣye vinā yena
kṣaṇaṁ ca mṛtakaṁ yathā
Without my husband, I cannot live for a moment. If you want to eat my husband, it would be better to eat me first, for without my husband I am as good as a dead body.
Seeing the King has not changed his mind, she again spoke. By his not living (yena) I will not live. I will be just like a corpse.
|| 9.9.33 ||
evaṁ karuṇa-bhāṣiṇyā
vilapantyā anāthavat
vyāghraḥ paśum ivākhādat
saudāsaḥ śāpa-mohitaḥ
Being condemned by the curse of Vasiṣṭha, King Saudāsa devoured the brāhmaṇa, exactly as a tiger eats its prey, disregarding the brāhmaṇa's wife who spoke so pitiably, and lamented.
While she spoke pitiably and lamented, he disregarded her and ate the brāhmaṇa.
|| 9.9.34 ||
brāhmaṇī vīkṣya didhiṣuṁ
puruṣādena bhakṣitam
śocanty ātmānam urvīśam
aśapat kupitā satī
When the chaste wife of the brāhmaṇa saw that her husband, who was about to discharge semen, had been eaten by the man-eater, she lamented for herself and angrily cursed the King.
Didhiṣum means “impregnating.”
|| 9.9.35 ||
yasmān me bhakṣitaḥ pāpa
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