Verse 20

²⁰On this they tell an old story, a talk between the messengers of Visnu and the messengers of Yama. Hear it from me. ²¹In Kanyakubja there was a brahmin, Ajamila by name, husband of a servant woman, his good conduct lost, spoiled by her company. ²²He took up a way of living that is condemned, seizing men and gambling and cheating and stealing, and unclean he kept his household and made other beings suffer. ²³Living so, and doting on her sons, a great stretch of time went by him, king: eighty-eight years of his life. ²⁴That old man had ten sons, and the youngest of them was a small boy named Narayana, very dear to his father and mother.

²⁵His heart was bound in that little one with his prattling talk, and watching the child at play the old man was full of delight. ²⁶Eating, drinking, chewing, tied by his fondness, he would feed the boy and give him drink; and being dull he did not know the ender had come.