The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
went and beheld Kánabhúti. Then he remembered his origin and suddenly,
as it were, awoke from sleep; and making use of the Paisácha language,
which was different from the three languages he had sworn to forsake,
he said to Kánabhúti, after telling him his own name; "Quickly tell
me that tale which you heard from Pushpadanta, in order that you
and I together, my friend, may escape from our curse." Hearing that,
Kánabhúti bowed before him, and said to him in joyful mood, "I will
tell you the story, but great curiosity possesses me, my lord, first
tell me all your adventures from your birth, do me this favour." Thus
being entreated by him, Gunádhya proceeded to relate as follows:
In Pratishthána [77] there is a city named Supratishthita; in it there
dwelt once upon a time an excellent Bráhman named Somasarman, and he,
my friend, had two sons Vatsa and Gulmaka, and he had also born to
him a third child, a daughter named Srutárthá. Now in course of time,
that Bráhman and his wife died, and those two sons of his remained
taking care of their sister. And she suddenly became pregnant. Then
Vatsa and Gulma began to suspect one another, because no other man
came in their sister's way: thereupon Srutárthá, who saw what was
in their minds, said to those brothers,--"Do not entertain evil
suspicions, listen, I will tell you the truth; there is a prince of
the name of Kírtisena, brother's son to Vásuki, the king of the Nágas;
[78] he saw me when I was going to bathe, thereupon he was overcome
with love, and after telling me his lineage and his name, made me
his wife by the Gándharva marriage; he belongs to the Bráhman race,
and it is by him that I am pregnant." When they heard this speech of
their sister's, Vatsa and Gulma said, "What confidence can we repose
in all this?" Then she silently called to mind that Nága prince, and
immediately he was thought upon, he came and said to Vatsa and Gulma,
"In truth I have made your sister my wife, she is a glorious heavenly
nymph fallen down to earth in consequence of a curse, and you too have
descended to earth for the same reason, but a son shall without fail
be born to your sister here, and then you and she together shall be
freed from your curse." Having said this he disappeared, and in a few
days from that time, a son was born to Srutárthá; know me my friend as
that son. [79] At that very time a divine voice was heard from heaven,
"This child that is born is an incarnation of virtue, and he shall
be called Gunádhya, [80] and is of the Bráhman caste." Thereupon
my mother and uncles, as their curse had spent its force, died,
and I for my part became inconsolable. Then I flung aside my grief,
and though a child I went in the strength of my self-reliance to
the Deccan to acquire knowledge. Then, having in course of time
learned all sciences, and become famous, I returned to my native
land to exhibit my accomplishments; and when I entered after a long
absence into the city of Supratishthita, surrounded by my disciples,
I saw a wonderfully splendid scene. In one place chanters were
intoning according to prescribed custom the hymns of the Sáma Veda,
in another place Bráhmans were disputing about the interpretation of
the sacred books, in another place gamblers were praising gambling
in these deceitful words, "Whoever knows the art of gambling, has a
treasure in his grasp," and in another place, in the midst of a knot
of merchants, who were talking to one another about their skill in
the art of making money, a certain merchant spoke as follows:
Story of the Mouse-merchant.
It is not very wonderful that a thrifty man should acquire wealth by
wealth; but I long ago achieved prosperity without any wealth to start
with. My father died before I was born, and then my mother was deprived
by wicked relations of all she possessed. Then she fled through fear of
them, watching over the safety of her unborn child, and dwelt in the
house of Kumáradatta a friend of my father's, and there the virtuous
woman gave birth to me, who was destined to be the means of her future
maintenance; and so she reared me up by performing menial drudgery. And
as she was so poor, she persuaded a teacher by way of charity to give
me some instruction in writing and ciphering. Then she said to me,
"You are the son of a merchant, so you must now engage in trade,
and there is a very rich merchant in this country called Visákhila;
he is in the habit of lending capital to poor men of good family,
go and entreat him to give you something to start with." Then I went
to his house, and he at the very moment I entered, said in a rage to
some merchant's son; "you see this dead mouse here upon the floor,
even that is a commodity by which a capable man would acquire wealth,
but I gave you, you good-for-nothing fellow, many dínárs, [81] and
so far from increasing them, you have not even been able to preserve
what you got." When I heard that, I suddenly said to that Visákhila,
"I hereby take from you that mouse as capital advanced;" saying this
I took the mouse up in my hand, and wrote him a receipt for it,
which he put in his strong box, and off I went. The merchant for
his part burst out laughing. Well, I sold that mouse to a certain
merchant as cat's-meat for two handfuls of gram, then I ground up
that gram, and taking a pitcher of water, I went and stood on the
cross-road in a shady place, outside the city; there I offered with
the utmost civility the water and gram to a band of wood-cutters;
[82] every wood-cutter gave me as a token of gratitude two pieces of
wood; and I took those pieces of wood and sold them in the market;
then for a small part of the price which I got for them, I bought a
second supply of gram, and in the same way on a second day I obtained
wood from the wood-cutters. Doing this every day I gradually acquired
capital, and I bought from those wood-cutters all their wood for three
days. Then suddenly there befell a dearth of wood on account of heavy
rains, and I sold that wood for many hundred panas, with that wealth I
set up a shop, and engaging in traffic, I have become a very wealthy
man by my own ability. Then I made a mouse of gold, and gave it to
that Visákhila, then he gave me his daughter; and in consequence of
my history I am known in the world by the name of Mouse. So without a
coin in the world I acquired this prosperity. All the other merchants
then, when they heard this story, were astonished. How can the mind
help being amazed at pictures without walls? [83]
Story of the chanter of the Sáma Veda.
In another place a Bráhman who had got eight gold máshas as a
present, a chanter of the Sáma Veda, received the following piece
of advice from a man who was a bit of a roué, "You get enough to
live upon by your position as a Bráhman, so you ought now to employ
this gold for the purpose of learning the way of the world in order
that you may become a knowing fellow." The fool said "Who will teach
me?" Thereupon the roué said to him, "This lady [84] named Chaturiká,
go to her house." The Bráhman said, "What am I to do there"? The roué
replied--"Give her gold, and in order to please her make use of some
sáma." [85] When he heard this, the chanter went quickly to the house
of Chaturiká; when he entered, the lady advanced to meet him and he
took a seat. Then that Bráhman gave her the gold and faltered out the
request, "Teach me now for this fee the way of the world." Thereupon
the people who were there began to titter, and he, after reflecting
a little, putting his hands together in the shape of a cow's ear,
so that they formed a kind of pipe, began, like a stupid idiot, to
chant with a shrill sound the Sáma Veda, so that all the roués in
the house came together to see the fun; and they said "Whence has
this jackal blundered in here? Come, let us quickly give him the
half-moon [86] on his throat." Thereupon the Bráhman supposing that
the half-moon meant an arrow with a head of that shape, and afraid
of having his head cut off, rushed out of the house, bellowing out,
"I have learnt the way of the world;" then he went to the man who had
sent him, and told him the whole story. He replied "when I told you
to use sáma, I meant coaxing and wheedling; what is the propriety
of introducing the Veda in a matter of this kind? The fact is, I
suppose, that stupidity is engrained in a man who muddles his head
with the Vedas?" So he spoke, bursting with laughter all the while,
and went off to the lady's house, and said to her, "Give back to that
two-legged cow his gold-fodder." So she laughing gave back the money,
and when the Bráhman got it, he went back to his house as happy as
if he had been born again.
Witnessing strange scenes of this kind at every step, I reached
the palace of the king which was like the court of Indra. And then
I entered it, with my pupils going before to herald my arrival,
and saw the king Sátaváhana sitting in his hall of audience upon a
jewelled throne, surrounded by his ministers, Sarvavarman and his
colleagues, as Indra is by the gods. After I had blessed him and had
taken a seat, and had been honoured by the king, Sarvavarman and the
other ministers praised me in the following words, "This man, O king,
is famous upon the earth as skilled in all lore, and therefore his
name Gunádhya [87] is a true index of his nature." Sátaváhana hearing
me praised in this style by his ministers, was pleased with me and
immediately entertained me honourably, and appointed me to the office
of Minister. Then I married a wife, and lived there comfortably,
looking after the king's affairs and instructing my pupils.
Once, as I was roaming about at leisure on the banks of the Godávarí
out of curiosity, I beheld a garden called Devíkriti, and seeing
that it was an exceedingly pleasant garden, like an earthly Nandana,
[88] I asked the gardener how it came there, and he said to me,
"My lord, according to the story which we hear from old people,
long ago there came here a certain Bráhman who observed a vow of
silence and abstained from food, he made this heavenly garden with
a temple; then all the Bráhmans assembled here out of curiosity, and
that Bráhman being persistently asked by them told his history. There
is in this land a province called Vakakachchha on the banks of the
Narmadá, in that district I was born as a Bráhman, and in former
times no one gave me alms, as I was lazy as well as poor; then in
a fit of annoyance I quitted my house being disgusted with life,
and wandering round the holy places, I came to visit the shrine
of Durgá the dweller in the Vindhya hills, and having beheld that
goddess, I reflected, 'People propitiate with animal offerings this
giver of boons, but I will slay myself here, stupid beast that I
am.' Having formed this resolve, I took in hand a sword to cut off
my head. Immediately that goddess being propitious, herself said to
me, 'Son, thou art perfected, do not slay thyself, remain near me;'
thus I obtained a boon from the goddess and attained divine nature;
from that day forth my hunger and thirst disappeared; then once on a
time, as I was remaining there, that goddess herself said to me, 'Go,
my son, and plant in Pratishthána a glorious garden;' thus speaking,
she gave me, with her own hands, heavenly seed; thereupon I came here
and made this beautiful garden by means of her power; and this garden
you must keep in good order. Having said this, he disappeared. In this
way this garden was made by the goddess long ago, my lord." When I
had heard from the gardener this signal manifestation of the favour
of the goddess, I went home penetrated with wonder.
The story of Sátaváhana.
When Gunádhya had said this, Kánabhúti asked, "Why, my lord, was the
king called Sátaváhana?" Then Gunádhya said, Listen, I will tell you