Chakradhar, a priest and cleric-sacrificer of Mathurapuri, had an ailing wife. Soon after giving birth to a baby boy, she developed a serious fever. The physician forbade the mother to feed the infant with her own milk, and the boy was too frail to digest the milk of the cow kept in the house.

Chakradhar came to know that Bhoodhar, the slave dealer, had a slave who had recently given birth to a child. He purchased both the mother and the child for fifty gold pieces. With her own child in her lap, Dara took over the priest’s son too. She was thankful to the gods for at least being permitted to feed and bring up her own child. She was happy at the thought that besides her own, she would also be able to assist in fostering the life of another newborn baby. When the priest’s wife recovered from her dangerous illness, she found that her breasts had run completely dry of milk. So Dara continued to nurse both the children and tried not to make any distinctions between them.

But Dara’s joy was short-lived. Soon enough her feelings underwent a change. Her mistress’s bidding was that she should suckle the mistress’s child first, and then her own. This order pierced Dara’s heart like an arrow. But she had no choice. After suckling the son of the Brahmin priest, there would be little milk left in her breasts for her own child. She would cry her heart out when she saw her own child hungry. She was always on the lookout for a chance to give the breast to her own child when the Brahmin’s wife was not looking. She began to cheat with her own milk. When the Brahmin’s son was hungry, there would be little milk left in her breasts for him. She began to hate the child of her master. Even when there was milk in her breasts, it would not flow to feed the master’s child.

The Brahmin’s wife was beside herself with rage at the slave-girl’s trickery. She shouted at Dara and scolded her in the most insulting terms. Seeing that Dara was not mending her ways, she warned her that she would take her child away from her and sell it. She ordered Dara to put her own child aside until she had satisfied her master’s baby.

Dara’s own child would lie on a rag in the veranda, and she would watch him with tearful eyes, while the other baby lay on her lap. This irritated her mistress all the more. She accused Dara of all kinds of duplicity and of disloyalty to her master.

It was unbearable for Dara to give the breast to her mistress’s child and see her own son crying for milk. She would turn her eyes away, and milk would stop flowing from her breasts. The Brahmin’s son would tug at her nipples with his toothless gums and start crying, waving his fists in the air. The Brahmin’s clever wife knew how to handle the situation. She would order Dara’s son, Shakul, to be brought before his mother. Milk would start rushing to Dara’s breasts and tears to her eyes when she saw him.