Why, indeed, dost thou seek to wash
off the spots of milk from thy body?'[450]
"The Chandala said, 'Formerly, O king, certain kine belonging to Brahmana
were stolen. While they were being carried away, some milk from their
udders fell upon a number of Soma plants that grew by the roadside. Those
Brahmanas that drank the juice of the plants thus bedewed with milk, as
also the king who performed the sacrifice in which that Soma was drunk,
had to sink in hell. Indeed, for having thus appropriated some thing that
had belonged to a Brahmana, the king with all the Brahmanas that had
assisted him had to go to hell. All those men also, Brahmanas and
Kshatriyas, that drank milk or ghee or curds, in the palace of the king
who had stolen the Brahmana's kine, had to fall into hell. The stolen
kine also, shaking their bodies, slew with their milk the sons and
grandsons of those that had stolen them, as also the king and the queen
although the latter treated the animals with great care and attention. As
regards myself, O king, I used to live in the observance of the vow of
Brahmacharya in that place where these kine were placed after they had
been stolen away. The food I had obtained by begging became sprinkled
over with the milk of those kine. Having taken that food, O thou of the
royal order, I have, in this life, become a Chandala.
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