Once upon a time, there lived a Sivana, a bird with two heads. One day it found a strange fruit on the seashore. It picked it up and started eating it. The head that was feeding exclaimed, “Many a sweet fruit tossed by the sea have I eaten, but this beats them all! Is it the fruit of a sandalwood tree or that of the divine parijata?”
Hearing this, the other head asked to taste the fruit, but the first head refused, saying, “We have a common stomach, so there’s no need for you to eat it too. I’ll give it to our sweetheart, the Bharundi,” and with that, it tossed the half-eaten fruit to the female.
From that day on, the second head carried a grudge against the first and waited for an opportunity to take revenge. One day it found a poison fruit. Picking up the fruit, it said to the first head, “You selfish wretch! See, here’s a poison fruit and I’m going to eat it!”
“Don’t do that, you fool!” shrieked the first head, “you’ll kill us both!”
But the second head would not listen. It consumed the poison and soon the two-headed bird was dead.
