Cheebuk too smiled, ‘Even when the body has no ailments, the mind may be ailing, Arya.’

‘Honoured sir, what has that man to give who has himself renounced the world?’ the Acharya remarked jokingly.

Cheebuk’s smile did not fade. ‘The Acharya is wise. Nothing can be renounced unless it is first acquired. No one can acquire the world and, therefore, no one can renounce it either. Acquisition and renunciation both are motivated by the same aim—that of contentment.’

‘You are right, revered sir,’ the Acharya admitted. ‘A man of the world, who has to pursue worldly affairs, has always many reasons to be discontented. He has many worries.’

The monk sitting besides Cheebuk said, ‘This bhikshu has come to relieve the Acharya of one of his many worries.’

Hearing the bhikshu’s voice the Acharya raised his head and then gasped for breath in amazement.

The monk continued, ‘I, Prithusen the bhikshu, having achieved the blessedness of universal friendship, shorn of all enmity towards the Acharya, have been freed from fear and anxiety. To relieve the Acharya also of fear and anxiety on my account, I have come to the Acharya in his audience chamber, to put myself in his hands. Receive Prithusen and give to the bhikshu, in charity, the joy of universal friendship.’ The monk spread out both his hands in a gesture of self-surrender.

The Acharya opened his lips to say something, but after heaving a deep sigh, closed them again. He sat silently, with his head bowed. After a while, when the noonday gong was sounded, he raised his head. Addressing the guest monks, he said, ‘Will the bhikshus kindly partake of some food?’

Cheebuk smiled and said, ‘The Acharya, familiar with our code of behaviour, knows that the Buddhist bhikshus do not eat anything after midday.’

The Acharya was struck with remorse at the fact that the monks who had come to his house could not be fed, and begging their pardon, said, ‘Honoured sir, the householder begs to be forgiven for this lapse on his part.’

‘Arya, you need have no anxiety on that score,’ the monk reassured him.

For a long time silence prevailed in the audience chamber. Then Cheebuk got up, took leave of the Acharya, offered his blessing, and made for the main gate, accompanied by Prithusen.

Acharya Rudradhir sat silently, with his head bowed.

Seeing the Acharya torn by anxiety, Vasudhir, his younger brother, said, ‘Acharya, when the enemy eats the dust of the ground, the war ends. This is the law of the caste religion.’

Rudradhir looked up at his younger brother, but there was no peace in his eyes.

Mallika

WITH THE RESTORATION OF THE RULE OF THE CASTE SYSTEM IN Madra, the insolence and insubordination of the lower classes disappeared from the public life of Sagal. Devi Mallika, too, was satisfied with the re-establishment of the Brahminic regime. In her assembly hall she organized regular artistic events in accordance to proper traditional methods. But even then, the spontaneity that used to be so much a feature of the days of her youth, when pupils like Divya and Madulika were there to assist her, could not be revived.