The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
for Ujjayiní, with his eleven companions, having been captivated
by Sasánkavatí.
And as he went along, he reached an uninhabited forest and saw standing
under a tree an ascetic, with ashes on his body, a deer-skin, and
matted hair. So he went up to him, with his followers, and said
to him; "Reverend sir, why do you live alone in this forest in
which there is no hermitage?" Then the hermit answered him, "I am
a pupil of the great sage named Suddhakírti and I know innumerable
spells. Once on a time I got hold of a certain Kshatriya boy with
auspicious marks, and I exerted all my diligence to cause him to be
possessed, while alive, by a spirit, and, when the boy was possessed,
I questioned him, and he told me of many places for potent drugs and
liquors, and then said this; 'There is in this Vindhya forest in the
northern quarter a solitary asoka-tree, and under it there is a great
palace of a snake-king. [179] In the middle of the day its water
is concealed with moistened dust, but it can be discovered by the
couples of swans sporting there together with the water-cranes. [180]
There dwells a mighty chief of the snakes, named Párávatáksha, and
he obtained a matchless sword from the war of the gods and Asuras,
named Vaidúryakánti; whatever man obtains that sword will become a
chief of the Siddhas and roam about unconquered, and that sword can
only be obtained by the aid of heroes.' When the possessed boy had
said this, I dismissed him. So I have wandered about over the earth
desirous to obtain that sword, and caring for nothing else, but,
as I have not been able to find men to help me, in disgust I have
come here to die." When Mrigánkadatta heard the ascetic say this, he
said to him, "I and my ministers will help you." The ascetic gladly
accepted his offer, and went with him and his followers, by the help
of an ointment rubbed on the feet, to the dwelling-place of that
snake. There he found the sign by which it could be recognised, and he
placed there at night Mrigánkadatta and his companions, duly initiated,
fixed with spells; and throwing enchanted mustard-seed he cleared the
water from dust, and began to offer an oblation with snake-subduing
spells. And he conquered by the power of his spells the impediments,
such as earthquakes, clouds, and so on. Then there came out from that
asoka-tree a heavenly nymph, as it were, murmuring spells with the
tinkling of her jewelled ornaments, and approaching the ascetic she
pierced his soul with a sidelong glance of love. And then the ascetic
lost his self-command and forgot his spells; and the shapely fair one,
embracing him, flung from his hand the vessel of oblation. And then
the snake Párávatáksha had gained his opportunity, and he came out
from that palace like the dense cloud of the day of doom. Then the
heavenly nymph vanished, and the ascetic beholding the snake terrible
with flaming eyes, roaring horribly, died of a broken heart.
When he was destroyed, the snake laid aside his awful form, and
cursed Mrigánkadatta and his followers, for helping the ascetic,
in the following words, "Since you did what was quite unnecessary
after all coming here with this man, you shall be for a certain time
separated from one another." Then the snake disappeared, and all of
them at the same time had their eyes dimmed with darkness, and were
deprived of the power of hearing sounds. And they immediately went
in different directions, separated from one another by the power
of the curse, though they kept looking for one another and calling
to one another. And when the delusion of the night was at an end,
Mrigánkadatta found himself roaming about in the wood without his
ministers.
And, after two or three months had passed, the Bráhman Srutadhi,
who was looking for him, suddenly fell in with him. Mrigánkadatta
received him kindly, and asked for news of his ministers, whereupon
Srutadhi fell at his feet weeping, and consoled him, and said to him,
"I have not seen them, prince, but I know they will go to Ujjayiní,
for that is the place we all have to go to." With these and similar
speeches he urged the prince to go there, so Mrigánkadatta set out
with him slowly for Ujjayiní.
And after he had journeyed a few days, he found his own minister
Vimalabuddhi who suddenly came that way. When the minister saw him,
he bowed before him with eyes filled with tears at seeing him, and
the prince embraced him, and making him sit down, he asked him for
tidings of the other ministers. Then Vimalabuddhi said to that prince,
who was so beloved by his servants, "I do not know, king, where each
of them has gone in consequence of the curse of the snake. But hear
how I know that you will find them again."
The adventures of Vimalabuddhi after he was separated from the prince.
When the snake cursed me, I was carried far away by the curse, and
wandered in the eastern part of the forest. And being fatigued, I was
taken by a certain kind person to the hermitage of a certain hermit,
named Brahmadandin. There my fatigue was removed by the fruits and
water which the sage gave me, and, roaming away far from the hermitage,
I saw a vast cave. I entered it out of curiosity, and I saw inside it a
palace made of jewels, and I began to look into the palace through the
lattice-windows. And lo! there was in it a woman causing to revolve
a wheel with bees, and those bees made some of them for a bull, and
others for a donkey, both which creatures were standing there. And
some drank the foam of milk sent forth by the bull, and others the
foam of blood sent forth by the donkey, and became white and black,
according to the colour of the two objects on which they settled;
and then they all turned into spiders. And the spiders, which were
of two different colours, made two different-coloured webs with their
excrements. And one set of webs was hung on wholesome flowers, and the
other on poisonous flowers. And the spiders, that were clinging to
those webs as they pleased, were bitten by a great snake which came
there, having two mouths, one white, and the other black. Then the
woman put them in various pitchers, but they got out again, and began
to occupy the same webs again respectively. Then those, that were on
the webs attached to the poisonous flowers, began to cry out, owing
to the violence of the poison. And thereupon the others, that were
on the other webs, began to cry out also. But the noise interrupted
the meditation of a certain merciful ascetic who was there, who
discharged fire at the webs. Then the webs, in which the spiders were
entangled, were burnt up, and the spiders entered a hollow coral rod,
and disappeared in a gleaming light at the top of it. In the meanwhile
the woman disappeared with her wheel, her bull, and her donkey.
When I had seen this, I continued to roam about there in a state of
astonishment; and then I saw a charming lake, which seemed by means
of its lotuses, round which bees hummed, to summon me thither to
look at it. And while I sat on the bank and looked at it, I beheld a
great wood inside the water, and in the wood was a hunter, and the
hunter had got hold of a lion's cub with ten arms which he brought
up, and then banished from the wood in anger, on the ground that it
was disobedient. [181] The lion then heard the voice of a lioness in
a neighbouring wood, and was going in the direction of the sound,
when his ten arms were scattered by a whirlwind. Then a man with a
protuberant belly came and restored his arms as they were before,
and he went to that forest in search of the lioness. He endured for
her sake much hardship in that other forest, and at last obtained her
whom he had had for a wife in a former state, and with her returned
to his own forest. And when the hunter saw that lion return with his
mate to the forest, which was his hereditary abode, [182] he resigned
it to him and departed.
When I had seen this, I returned to the hermitage and described both
those very wonderful spectacles to Brahmadandin. And that hermit,
who knows the past, present, and future, kindly said to me, "You
are fortunate; Siva has shewn you all this by way of favour. That
woman, whom you saw, is Illusion, and the wheel which she caused to
revolve, is the wheel of mundane existence, and the bees are living
creatures. And the bull and the donkey are respectively symbols of
Righteousness and Unrighteousness, and the foam of milk and the foam
of blood discharged by them, to which the bees repaired, are typical
of good and evil actions. And they acquired properties arising from
the things on which they respectively settled, and became spiders of
two kinds, white and foul respectively; and then with their energy,
which was symbolized by excrement, they produced entangling nets of two
kinds, such as offspring and so on, which were attached to wholesome
and poisonous flowers, which signify happiness and misery. And while
clinging each to its own web, they were bitten by a snake, typical
of Death, with its two mouths, the white set with the white mouth
symbolical of good fortune, the other with the black mouth symbolical
of evil fortune.
Then that female, typifying Illusion [183] plunged them into various
wombs typified by the jars, and they again emerged from them, and
assuming forms white and black, corresponding to what they had before,
they fell into entangling webs, which are symbolical of sons and
other worldly connexions, resulting in happiness and misery. Then
the black spiders, entangled in their webs, being tortured by the
poison, symbolical of pain, began in their affliction to invoke the
supreme lord as their help. When the white spiders, who were in their
own webs, perceived that, they also became averse to their state,
and began to invoke that same lord. Then the god, who was present
in the form of an ascetic, awoke from his trance, and consumed all
their entangling webs with the fire of knowledge. Accordingly they
ascended into the bright coral tube, typical of the orb of the sun,
and reached the highest home, which lies above it. And then Illusion
vanished, with the revolving wheel of births, and with her ox, and
her ass, typical of Righteousness and Unrighteousness.
Even thus in the circle of existence revolve creatures, fair and foul
according to their actions, and they are liberated by propitiating
Siva; and this spectacle has been shown to you by Siva to teach you
this lesson, and to put an end to your delusion. As for that sight
which you saw in the water of the tank, this is the explanation of
it. The holy god produced this apparent reflection in the water,
in order to teach you what was destined to befall Mrigánkadatta. For
he may be compared to a young lion-whelp, and he was brought up with
ten ministers round him resembling ten arms, and he was banished in
anger by his father, (typified by the hunter) from his native land,
typified by the forest: and on hearing the report of Sasánkavatí,
(who may be compared to a lioness,) coming from the land of Avanti,
(symbolized by the other wood, [184]) he made towards her, and the
wind which stripped him of his arms is the curse of the snake, which
separated him from his ministers. Then Vináyaka [185] appeared as a
man with a pendulous belly, and restored to him his arms, (that is to
say, his ministers,) and so he recovered his former condition. Then
he went and after enduring great hardship, obtained from another place
the lioness, (that is Sasánkavatí,) and returned. And when the hunter,
(that is his father,) saw him coming near with his wife, having swept
away the obstacles which his foes put in his way, [186] he resigned
to him the whole of his forest, (that is his kingdom,) and retired
to a grove of ascetics. Thus has Siva shewn you the future as if it
had already taken place. So you may be sure, your master will recover