The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
she heard this, she took him, and Padmishthá, and Mukharaka,
to that asylum, and there said to the superintendent, "Here is a
Bráhman gambler arrived from a foreign land, a hero who is able to
assist that enchanter in performing incantations for the good of the
king." When the superintendent heard this, he questioned Srídarsana,
and when he confirmed the words of the old lady, he treated him with
great respect, and led him quickly into the presence of the king.
And Srídarsana, being introduced by him, beheld the king, who was
thin and pale as the new moon. And the king Srísena observed that
Srídarsana, who bowed before him and sat down, was of a taking
appearance, and pleased with his look, he felt comforted, and said
to him, "I know that your exertions will certainly put an end to
my disease; my body tells me this, for the mere sight of you has
quieted its sufferings. So aid the enchanter in this matter." When
the king said this, Srídarsana said to him "The enterprise is a mere
trifle." Then the king summoned the enchanter and said to him, "This
hero will aid you; do what you said." When that enchanter heard that,
he said to Srídarsana,
"My good sir, if you are able to assist me in raising a Vetála, come
to me in the cemetery at night-fall this very day, the fourteenth
of the black fortnight." When the ascetic, who practised magic, had
said this, he went away, and Srídarsana took leave of the king and
returned to that asylum.
There he took food with Padmishthá and Mukharaka, and at night he went
alone, sword in hand, to the cemetery. It was full of many ghosts,
empty of men, inauspicious, full of roaring jackals, covered with
impenetrable darkness, but shewed in some places a faint gleam where
the funeral pyres were. [249] The hero Srídarsana wandered about in
that place of horrors and saw the enchanter in the middle of it. His
whole body was smeared with ashes, he had a Bráhmanical thread of
hair, he wore a turban made of the clothes of the dead, and he was
clad in a black garment. Srídarsana approached him, and made himself
known to him, and then girding up his loins, he said, "Tell me,
what shall I do for you?" The enchanter answered in high spirits,
"Half a cos only to the west of this place there is an Asoka tree,
the leaves of which are burnt with the hot flame of funeral pyres. At
the foot of it there is a corpse, go and bring it here unharmed."
Then Srídarsana said, "I will," and going quickly to the place he
saw some one else taking away the corpse. So he ran and tried to
drag it from the shoulder of that person, who would not let it go,
and said to him,--"Let go this corpse: where are you taking my friend
whom I have to burn?" Then that second person said to Srídarsana,
"I will not let the dead man go; I am his friend; what have you to
do with him?" While they were dragging the corpse from one another's
shoulders, and making these mutual recriminations, the corpse itself,
which was animated by a Vetála, uttered a terrible shriek. That
terrified the second person so that his heart broke, and he fell down
dead, and then Srídarsana went off with that corpse in his arms. Then
the second man, though dead, rose up, being possessed by a Vetála,
and tried to stop Srídarsana, and said to him, "Halt! do not go off
with my friend on your shoulder." Then Srídarsana, knowing that his
rival was possessed by a Vetála, said to him, "What proof is there
that you are his friend? He is my friend." The rival then said,
"The corpse itself shall decide between us." Then Srídarsana, said,
"Well! let him declare who is his friend." Then the corpse, that
was on his back, being possessed by a Vetála, said, "I am hungry,
so I decide that whoever gives me food is my friend; let him take me
where he likes." When the second corpse, that was also possessed by
a Vetála, heard this, he answered,--"I have no food; if he has any,
let him give you some." Srídarsana, hearing this, said, "I will give
him food," and proceeded to strike with his sword at the second corpse,
in order to procure food for the Vetála that was on his shoulder. [250]
But that second corpse, which was also possessed by a Vetála, the
moment he began to strike it, disappeared by its supernatural power.
Then the Vetála, that was on Srídarsana's shoulder, said to him, "Now
give me the food that you promised me." So Srídarsana, not being able
to obtain any other flesh to give him to eat, cut off with his sword
some of his own flesh, and gave it to him. This pleased the Vetála,
and he said to him, "I am satisfied with you, brave man, let your
body be restored whole as before. Now take me off; this enterprise of
yours shall succeed, but that ascetic enchanter shall be destroyed,
for he is a great coward." When Srídarsana was thus addressed by
the Vetála, he immediately became whole as before, and taking the
corpse he handed it to that magician. And he received it joyfully,
and honoured it with unguents and garlands of blood, and he placed
the corpse, possessed by the Vetála, on its back in a great circle
marked out with powdered human bones, in the corners of which were
placed pitchers of blood, and which was lighted up with lamps fed
by oil from the human body. And he sat on the breast of the corpse,
and holding in his hand a ladle and spoon of human bone, he began to
make an oblation of clarified butter in its mouth. Immediately such a
flame issued from the mouth of that corpse possessed by the Vetála,
that the sorcerer rose up in terror and fled. When he thus lost his
presence of mind, and dropped his spoon and ladle; the Vetála pursued
him, and opening his mouth swallowed him whole. [251]
When Srídarsana saw that, he lifted up his sword and attacked
the Vetála, but the Vetála said to him, "Srídarsana, I am pleased
with this courage of yours, so take these mustard-seeds produced in
my mouth. If you place these on the head and hands of the king, the
malady of consumption will immediately leave him, and you in a short
time will become the king of the whole earth." When Srídarsana heard
this, he said, "How can I leave this place without that sorcerer? The
king is sure to say that I killed him out of a selfish regard to my
own interests." When Srídarsana said this to the Vetála, he answered,
"I will tell you a convincing proof, which will clear you. Cut open
the body of this corpse, and shew inside it this sorcerer dead, whom
I have swallowed." When the Vetála had said this, he gave him the
mustard-seeds, and went off somewhere or other, leaving that corpse,
and the corpse fell on the ground.
Then Srídarsana went off, taking with him the mustard-seeds, and
he spent that night in the asylum in which his friend was. And the
next morning he went to the king, and told him what had happened
in the night, and took and shewed to the ministers that sorcerer in
the stomach of the corpse. Then he placed the mustard-seeds on the
head and the hand of the king, and that made the king quite well,
as all his sickness at once left him. Then the king was pleased, and,
as he had no son, he adopted as his son Srídarsana, who had saved his
life. And he immediately anointed that hero crown-prince; for the
seed of benefits, sown in good soil, produces abundant fruit. Then
the fortunate Srídarsana married there that Padmishthá, who seemed
like the goddess of Fortune that had come to him in reward for his
former courting of her, and the hero remained there in the company
of her brother Mukharaka, enjoying pleasures and ruling the earth.
One day a great merchant, named Upendrasakti, found an image of Ganesa,
carved out of a jewel, on the border of a tank, and brought it and gave
it to that prince. The prince, seeing that it was of priceless value,
out of his fervent piety, set it up in a very splendid manner in a
temple. And he appointed a thousand villages there for the permanent
support of the temple, and he ordained in honour of the idol a festive
procession, at which all Málava assembled. And Ganesa, being pleased
with the numerous dances, songs, and instrumental performances in
his honour, said to the Ganas at night, "By my favour this Srídarsana
shall be a universal emperor on the earth. Now there is an island named
Hansadvípa in the western sea; and in it is a king named Anangodaya,
and he has a lovely daughter named Anangamanjarí. And that daughter
of his, being devoted to me, always offers to me this petition after
she has worshipped me, "Holy one, give me a husband who shall be the
lord of the whole earth." So I will marry her to this Srídarsana,
and thus I shall have bestowed on both the meet reward of their
devotion to me. So you must take Srídarsana there, and after you have
contrived that they should see one another, bring him back quickly;
and in course of time they shall be united in due form; but it cannot
be done immediately, for such is the will of destiny. Moreover I have
determined by these means to recompense Upendrasakti, the merchant,
who brought my image to the prince."
The Ganas, having received this order from Ganesa, took Srídarsana
that very night, while he was asleep, and carried him to Hansadvípa
by their supernatural power. And there they introduced him into the
chamber of Anangamanjarí, and placed him on the bed on which that
princess was lying asleep. Srídarsana immediately woke up, and saw
Anangamanjarí. She was reclining on a bed covered with a coverlet
of pure white woven silk, in a splendid chamber in which flashed
jewel-lamps, and which was illuminated by the numerous priceless
gems of the canopy and other furniture, and the floor of which was
dark with the rájávarta stone. As she lay there pouring forth rays
of beauty like the lovely effluence of a stream of nectar, she seemed
like the orb of the autumn moon lapped in a fragment of a white cloud,
in a sky adorned with a host of bright twinkling stars, gladdening
the eyes. Immediately he was delighted, astonished, and bewildered,
and he said to himself, "I went to sleep at home and I have woke
up in a very different place. What does all this mean? Who is this
woman? Surely it is a dream! Very well, let it be so. But I will
wake up this lady and find out." After these reflections he gently
nudged Anangamanjarí on the shoulder with his hand. And the touch
of his hand made her immediately awake and roll her eyes, as the
kumudvatí opens under the rays of the moon, and the bees begin to
circle in its cup. When she saw him, she reflected for a moment,
"Who can this being of celestial appearance be? Surely he must
be some god that has penetrated into this well-guarded room?" So
she rose up, and asked him earnestly and respectfully who he was,
and how and why he had entered there. Then he told his story, and
the fair one, when questioned by him, told him in turn her country,
name, and descent. Then they both fell in love with one another, and
each ceased to believe that the other was an object seen in a dream,
and in order to make certain, they exchanged ornaments.
Then they both became eager for the Gándharva form of marriage, but
the Ganas stupefied them, and laid them to sleep. And, as soon as
Srídarsana fell asleep, they took him and carried him back to his own
palace, cheated by Destiny of his desire. Then Srídarsana woke up in
his own palace, and seeing himself decked with the ornaments of a lady,
he thought, "What does this mean? At one moment I am in that heavenly
palace with the daughter of the king of Hansadvípa, at another moment
I am here. It cannot be a dream, for here are these ornaments of hers
on my wrist, so it must be some strange freak of Destiny." While he
was engaged in these speculations, his wife Padmishthá woke up, and
questioned him, and the kind woman comforted him, and so he passed
the night. And the next morning he told the whole story to Srísena,