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The tribes and castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, Volume 1 (of 4)

Note 50 — A

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12. Meanwhile the brother of Lorik, Semru, had been attacked and killed by the Kols and all his cattle plundered. Lorik takes a bloody revenge from the enemy. Before he left home with Chandain, Lorik had been betrothed to an Ahîr girl named Satmanain, who by this time had become a handsome woman, who lived in the hope that Lorik would some day return and claim her. Lorik was anxious to test her fidelity, and when he came near home, concealed his identity. When she and the other woman came to sell milk in his camp he laid down a loin cloth at the entrance. All the other women stepped over it, but such was the delicacy of Satmanain that she refused. Lorik was pleased, and, without her knowledge, filled her basket with jewels, and covered them over with rice. When she returned, her sister found the jewels, and taxed her with receiving them as the price of her honour. She indignantly denied the accusation, and the son of Semru, the dead brother of Lorik, set out to avenge on him the insult to his aunt. Finally, the matter was cleared up, and Lorik reigned for many years in happiness with his wives Chandain and Satmanain. But the god Indra determined to destroy his virtue, and he induced Durga to take the form of his mistress and tempt him. When he gave way to the temptation and touched her she struck him so that his face turned completely round. Overcome by grief and shame he went to Kâsi (Benares), and there they were all turned into stone, and sleep the sleep of magic at the Manikarnika Ghât.50

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