The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
life. So knowing, my son, by the power of my meditation that you had
come here, I have come to meet you. Now follow me and marry that Velá,
whom I will bestow on you. Let the sufferings, which you have both
endured, produce fruits of happiness."
Speaking thus, the saintly woman refreshed me with her voice as with
cloudless rain, and then she took me to the hermitage of her father,
the great hermit Mátanga. And at her request the hermit bestowed on
me that Velá, like the happiness of the kingdom of the imagination
incarnate in bodily form. But one day, as I was living happily
with Velá, I commenced a splashing match with her in the water of a
tank. And I and Velá, not seeing the hermit Mátanga, who had come there
to bathe, sprinkled him inopportunely with some of the water which we
threw. That annoyed him, and he denounced a curse on me and my wife,
saying, "You shall be separated, you wicked couple." Then Velá clung
to his knees, and asked him with plaintive voice to appoint a period
for the duration of our curse, and he, after thinking, fixed its end
as follows, "When thou shalt behold at a distance Naraváhanadatta
the future mighty emperor of the Vidyádharas, who shall beat with
a swift elephant a pair of fleet horses, then thy curse shall be at
an end, and thou shalt be re-united with thy wife." When the rishi
Mátanga had said this, he performed the ceremony of bathing and other
ceremonies, and went to Svetadvípa through the air, to visit the
shrine of Vishnu. And Yamuná said to me and my wife--"I give you now
that shoe covered with valuable jewels, which a Vidyádhara long ago
obtained, when it had slipped off from Siva's foot, and which I seized
in childish sport." Thereupon Yamuná also went to Svetadvípa. Then
I having obtained my beloved, and being disgusted with dwelling in
the forest, through fear of being separated from my wife, felt a
desire to return to my own country. And setting out for my native
land, I reached the shore of the sea; and finding a trading vessel,
I put my wife on board, and was preparing to go on board myself,
when the wind, conspiring with the hermit's curse, carried off that
ship to a distance. When the ship carried off my wife before my eyes,
my whole nature was stunned by the shock, and distraction seemed
to have found an opening in me, and broke into me and robbed me of
consciousness. Then an ascetic came that way, and seeing me insensible,
he compassionately brought me round and took me to his hermitage. There
he asked me the whole story, and when he found out that it was the
consequence of a curse, and that the curse was to end, he animated
me with resolution to bear up. Then I found an excellent friend, a
merchant, who had escaped from his ship that had foundered in the sea,
and I set out with him in search of my beloved. And supported by the
hope of the termination of the curse, I wandered through many lands and
lasted out many days, until I finally reached this city of Vaisákha,
and heard that you, the jewel of the noble family of the king of Vatsa,
had come here. Then I saw you from a distance beat that pair of swift
horses with the female elephant, and the weight of the curse fell from
me, and I felt my heart lightened. [156] And immediately I saw that
dear Velá coming to meet me, whom the good merchants had brought in
their ship. Then I was re-united with my wife, who had with her the
jewels bestowed by Yamuná, and having by your favour crossed the ocean
of separation, I came here, prince of Vatsa, to pay you my respects,
and I will now set out cheerfully for my native land with my wife.
When that excellent merchant Chandrasára, who had accomplished his
object, had gone, after prostrating himself before the prince, and
telling his story, Ruchiradeva, pleased at beholding the greatness of
his guest, was still more obsequious to him. And in addition to the
elephant and the pair of horses, he gave his sister, making the duty of
hospitality an excuse for doing so, to the prince who was captivated
by her beauty. She was a good match for the prince, and her brother
had long desired to bestow her upon him in marriage. Naraváhanadatta
then took leave of Ruchiradeva, and with his new wife, the elephant,
and the two horses, returned to the city of Kausámbí. And he remained
there, gladdening his father with his presence, living happily with
her and his other wives, of whom Madanamanchuká was the chief.
BOOK XII.
CHAPTER LXVIII.
May Ganesa protect you, who, when he sports, throws up his trunk,
round which plays a continual swarm of bees, like a triumphal pillar
covered with letters, erected on account of the overthrow of obstacles!
We worship Siva, who, though free from the hue of passion, abounds in
colours, the skilful painter who is ever producing new and wonderful
creations. Victorious are the arrows of the god of love, for, when
they descend, though they are made of flowers, the thunderbolt and
other weapons are blunted in the hands of those who bear them.
So the son of the king of Vatsa remained in Kausámbí, having obtained
wife after wife. But though he had so many wives, he ever cherished the
head queen Madanamanchuká more than his own life, as Krishna cherishes
Rukminí. But one night he saw in a dream that a heavenly maiden came
and carried him off. And when he awoke, he found himself on a slab
of the tárkshya gem, on the plateau of a great hill, a place full of
shady trees. And he saw that maiden near him, illuminating the wood,
though it was night, [157] like a herb used by the god of love for
bewildering the world. He thought that she had brought him there,
and he perceived that modesty made her conceal her real feelings;
so the cunning prince pretended to be asleep, and in order to test
her, he said, as if talking in his sleep, "Where are you, my dear
Madanamanchuká? Come and embrace me." When she heard it, she profited
by his suggestion, and assumed the form of his wife, and embraced
him without the restraint of modesty. Then he opened his eyes, and
beholding her in the form of his wife, he said, "O how intelligent you
are!" and smiling threw his arms round her neck. Then she dismissed all
shame, and exhibiting herself in her real shape, she said--"Receive,
my husband, this maiden, who chooses you for her own." And when she
said that, he married her by the Gándharva form of marriage.
But next morning he said to her, by way of an artifice to discover
her lineage, about which he felt curious; "Listen, my dear, I will
tell you a wonderful story."
Story of the jackal that was turned into an elephant.
There lived in a certain wood of ascetics a hermit, named Brahmasiddhi,
who possessed by meditation supernatural power, and near his hermitage
there was an old female jackal dwelling in a cave. One day it was
going out to find food, having been unable to find any for some time
on account of bad weather, when a male elephant, furious on account of
its separation from its female, rushed towards it to kill it. When the
hermit saw that, being compassionate as well as endowed with magical
power, he turned the female jackal into a female elephant, by way of a
kindness, to please both. Then the male elephant, beholding a female,
ceased to be furious, and became attached to her, and so she escaped
death. Then, as he was roaming about with the jackal transformed into
a female elephant, he entered a tank full of the mud produced by the
autumn rains, to crop a lotus. He sank in the mud there, and could not
move, but remained motionless, like a mountain that has fallen owing
to its wings having been cut off by the thunderbolt. When the female
elephant, that was before a jackal, saw the male in this distress,
she went off that moment and followed another male elephant. Then
it happened that the elephant's own mate, that he had lost, came
that way in search of her spouse. The noble creature, seeing her
husband sinking in the mud, entered the mud of the tank in order to
join him. At that moment the hermit Brahmasiddhi came that way with
his disciples, and was moved with pity when he saw that pair. And
he bestowed by his power great strength on his disciples, and made
them extricate the male and female from the mud. Then the hermit went
away, and that couple of elephants, having been delivered both from
separation and death, roamed where they would.
"So you see, my dear, that even animals, if they are of a noble strain,
do not desert a lord or friend in calamity, but rescue him from it. But
as for those which are of low origin, they are of fickle nature, and
their hearts are never moved by noble feelings or affection." When
the prince of Vatsa said this, the heavenly maiden said to him--"It
is so, there can be no doubt about this. But I know what your real
object is in telling me this tale; so in return, my husband, hear
this tale from me."
Story of Vámadatta and his wicked wife.
There was an excellent Bráhman in Kányakubja, named Súradatta,
possessor of a hundred villages, respected by the king Báhusakti. And
he had a devoted wife, named Vasumatí, and by her he begot a
handsome son, named Vámadatta. Vámadatta, the darling of his father,
was instructed in all the sciences, and soon married a wife, of the
name of Sasiprabhá. In course of time his father went to heaven,
and his wife followed him, [158] and the son undertook with his wife
the duties of a householder. But without his knowledge his wife was
addicted to following her lusts, and by some chance or other she
became a witch possessed of magical powers. [159]
One day, when the Bráhman was in the king's camp, engaged in his
service, his paternal uncle came and said to him in secret, "Nephew,
our family is disgraced, for I have seen your wife in the company of
your cowherd." When Vámadatta heard this, he left his uncle in the
camp in his stead, and went, with his sword for his only companion,
back to his own house. He went into the flower-garden and remained
there in concealment, and in the night the cowherd came there. And
immediately his wife came eagerly to meet her paramour, with all kinds
of food in her hand. After he had eaten, she went off to bed with him,
and then Vámadatta rushed upon them with uplifted sword, exclaiming,
"Wretches, where are you going?" When he said that, his wife rose up
and said, "Away fool," and threw some dust in his face. Then Vámadatta
was immediately changed from a man into a buffalo, but in his new
condition he still retained his memory. Then his wicked wife put him
among the buffaloes, and made the herdsman beat him with sticks. [160]
And the cruel woman immediately sold him in his helpless bestial
condition to a trader, who required a buffalo. The trader put a load
upon the man, who found his transformation to a buffalo a sore trial,
and took him to a village near the Ganges. He reflected, "A wife of
very bad character that enters unsuspected the house of a confiding
man, is never likely to bring him prosperity, any more than a snake
which gets into the female apartments." While full of these thoughts,
he was sorrowful, with tears gushing from his eyes, moreover he
was reduced to skin and bone by the fatigue of carrying burdens,
and in this state he was beheld by a certain white witch. She knew
by her magic power the whole transaction, and sprinkling him with
some charmed water, she released him from his buffalo condition. And
when he had returned to human form, she took him to her own house,
and gave him her virgin daughter named Kántimatí. And she gave him
some charmed mustard-seeds, and said to him; "Sprinkle your wicked
former wife with these, and turn her into a mare." Then Vámadatta,
taking with him his new wife, went with the charmed mustard-seeds to
his own house. Then he killed the herdsman, and with the mustard-seeds