The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story

There is on the earth a famous city named Páṭaliputra. In it there lived of old time a king named Vikramakeśarin, whom Providence made a storehouse of virtues as well as of jewels. And he possessed a parrot of godlike intellect, knowing all the śástras, that had been born in that condition owing to a curse, and its name was Vidagdhachúḍámaṇi. And the prince married as a wife, by the advice of the parrot, a princess of equal birth, of the royal family of Magadha, named Chandraprabhá. That princess also possessed a similar hen-maina, of the name of Somiká, remarkable for knowledge and discernment. And the two, the parrot and the maina, remained there in the same cage, assisting with their discernment their master and mistress.

One day the parrot became enamoured of the maina, and said to her, “Marry me, fair one, as we sleep, perch, and feed in the same cage.” But the maina answered him, “I do not desire intimate union with a male, for all males are wicked and ungrateful.” The parrot retorted, “It is not true that males are wicked, but females are wicked and cruel-hearted.” And so a dispute arose between them. The two birds then made a bargain that, if the parrot won, he should have the maina for wife, and if the maina won, the parrot should be her slave, and they came before the prince to get a true judgment. The prince, who was in his father’s judgment-hall, heard the point at issue between them, and then said to the maina, “Tell me, how are males ungrateful?” Then the maina said, “Listen,” and in order to establish her contention, proceeded to relate this story illustrating the faults of males.