‘The Grandsire? He has never struck me as one to think that way...’
‘The boar has mellowed since his youth. Even so, you are right, he is one of the less odious examples of that castely way of thought. But it was not so much his example, which turned me, as one of his conquests. You asked me, that day in the tiger country, who was Amba. You know that she was acquired, along with her sisters, by the boar’s superior force. She came to me, to plead her cause. It was she who first made me think, who first made me stop to look at what I was doing with my skill. And when I saw, I resolved never again to teach kshatriyas. It was my teaching that had given power to Bhishma, permitting him to vanquish Amba’s father and all the other suitors — almost single-handed. It was my own skill that he was u
