The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
When the goddess Earth said this to Víravara, he said, "Goddess, I
will go, and do it this very instant." Then Earth said, "May success
attend you!" and disappeared; and the king, who was secretly following
Víravara, heard all this.
Then Víravara went quickly in the darkness to his own house, and king
Súdraka, out of curiosity, followed him unobserved. There he woke up
his wife Dharmavatí, and told her how the goddess Earth had directed
him to offer up his son for the sake of the king. When she heard
it, she said, "My lord, we must ensure the prosperity of the king;
so wake up this young boy of ours and tell it him yourself." Then
Víravara woke up his young son Sattvavara, who was asleep, and told
him what had occurred, and said to him, "So, my son, the king will
live if you are offered up to the goddess Chandí, but if not, he
will die on the third day." When Sattvavara heard it, though he was
a mere child, he shewed a heroic soul, and justified his name. [297]
He said "I shall have obtained all I desire, if the sacrifice of my
life saves that of the king, for so I shall have repaid him for his
food which I have eaten. So why should there be any delay? Take me
and offer me up immediately before the adorable goddess. Let me be
the means of bringing about the happiness of my lord."
When Sattvavara said this, Víravara answered, "Bravo! you are in truth
my own son." And the king, who had followed them, and heard all this
conversation from outside, said to himself, "Ah! they are all equal
in courage."
Then Víravara took his son Sattvavara on his shoulder, and his wife
Dharmavatí took their daughter Víravatí, and they both went that
very night to the temple of Chandí, and king Súdraka followed them
unobserved. Then Sattvavara was taken down by his father from his
shoulder, and placed in front of the idol, and the boy, who was full of
courage, bowed before the goddess, and said, "May the sacrifice of my
head ensure the life of king Súdraka! May he rule unopposed, goddess,
for another hundred years!" When the boy Sattvavara said this, Víravara
exclaimed, "Bravo!" and drew his sword and cut off his son's head,
and offered it to the goddess, saying, "May the sacrifice of my son
save the king's life!"--Immediately a voice was heard from the air,
"Bravo! Víravara! What man is as devoted to his sovereign as thou,
who, by the sacrifice of thy noble only son, hast bestowed on this
king Súdraka life and a kingdom?" Then that young girl Víravatí,
the daughter of Víravara, came up, and embraced the head of her slain
brother, and weeping, blinded with excessive grief, she broke her heart
and so died. And the king saw and heard all this from his concealment.
Then Víravara's wife Dharmavatí said to him, "We have ensured the
prosperity of the king, so now I have something to say to you. Since
my daughter, though a child and knowing nothing, has died out of grief
for her brother, and I have lost these two children of mine, what is
the use of life to me? Since I have been so foolish as not to offer
my own head long ago to the goddess for the welfare of the king, give
me leave to enter the fire with my children's bodies." When she urged
this request, Víravara said to her, "Do so, and may prosperity attend
you, for what pleasure could you find, noble woman, in continuing
a life, that would for you be full of nothing but grief for your
children. But do not be afflicted, because you did not sacrifice
yourself. Would not I have sacrificed myself, if the object could
have been attained by the sacrifice of any victim but our son? So
wait until I have made a pyre for you with these pieces of timber,
collected to build the fence round the sanctuary of the goddess."
When Víravara had said this, he made a funeral pyre with the timber,
and placed on it the bodies of his two children, and lighted it with
the flame of a lamp. Then his virtuous wife Dharmavatí fell at his
feet, and, after worshipping the goddess Chandí, she addressed to
her this prayer, "May my present husband be my husband also in a
future birth! And may the sacrifice of my life procure prosperity
for the king his master!" When the virtuous woman had said this,
she threw herself fearlessly into the burning pyre, from which the
flames streamed up like hair.
Then the hero Víravara said to himself, "I have done what the king's
interests required, as the celestial voice testified, and I have
paid my debt to my master for his food which I have eaten: so, as I
am now left alone, why should I thus cling to life? It does not look
well for a man like me to nurse his own life only, after sacrificing
all his dear family, which it is his duty to maintain. So why should
I not gratify Durgá by sacrificing myself?" Having thus reflected,
he first approached the goddess with this hymn of praise:
"Hail to thee, thou slayer of the Asura Mahisha, destroyer of the
Dánava Ruru, trident-bearing goddess! Hail to thee, best of mothers,
that causest rejoicing among the gods, and upholdest the three
worlds! Hail thou whose feet are worshipped by the whole earth,
the refuge of those that are intent on final beatitude! Hail thou
that wearest the rays of the sun, and dispellest the accumulated
darkness of calamity! Hail to thee, Kálí, skull-bearing goddess,
wearer of skeletons! Hail, Sivá! Honour to thee! Be propitious now to
king Súdraka on account of the sacrifice of my head!" After Víravara
had praised the goddess in these words, he cut off his head with a
sudden stroke of his sword.
King Súdraka, who was a witness of all this from his place of
concealment, was full of bewilderment, sorrow, and astonishment,
and said to himself, "This worthy man and his family have performed
for my sake a wonderful and difficult exploit never seen or heard
of anywhere else. Though the world is wide and various, where could
there be found a man so resolute as secretly to sacrifice his life
for his master, without proclaiming the fact abroad? And if I do not
requite this benefit, what is the use of my sovereignty, and of my
protracting my life, which would only be like that of an animal?"
When the heroic king had thus reflected, he drew his sword from the
sheath, and approaching the goddess, prayed thus to her, "Be propitious
to me now, goddess, on account of this sacrifice of my head, and confer
a boon on me, thy constant votary. Let this Bráhman Víravara, whose
acts are in accordance with his name, and who sacrificed his life for
my sake, be resuscitated with his family!" After uttering this prayer,
king Súdraka was preparing to cut off his head with his sword, but
at that moment a voice was heard from the air, "Do not act rashly;
I am pleased with this courage of thine; let the Bráhman Víravara be
restored to life, together with his wife and his children!"--Having
uttered so much, the voice ceased, and Víravara rose up alive and
unwounded, with his son, his daughter, and his wife. When the king,
who quickly concealed himself again, saw that marvel, he was never
tired of looking at them with an eye full of tears of joy.
And Víravara quickly awoke as if from sleep, and, beholding his
children and wife alive, and also himself, he was confused in mind. And
he asked his wife and children, addressing them severally by name,
"How have you returned to life after having been reduced to ashes? I
too cut off my head: what is the meaning of my being now alive? Is
this a delusion, or the manifest favour of the goddess?" When he
said this, his wife and children answered him, "Our being alive is
due to a merciful interposition of the goddess, of which we were not
conscious." Then Víravara came to the conclusion that it was so,
and after worshipping the goddess, he returned home with his wife
and children, having accomplished his object.
And after he had left his son, wife, and daughter there, he returned
that very night to the palace-gate of the king, and stood there as
before. King Súdraka, for his part, who had beheld all unobserved,
again went up to the roof of his palace. And he cried out from the
roof, "Who is in attendance at the palace-gate?" Then Víravara said,
"I myself am in waiting here, your Majesty. And in accordance with
your orders I went in search of that woman, but she disappeared
somewhere as soon as seen, like a Rákshasí." When the king heard
the speech of that Víravara, he was very much astonished, as he had
himself seen what took place, and he said to himself, "Indeed people
of noble spirit are deep and self-contained of soul as the sea, for
when they have performed an unparalleled exploit, they do not utter
any description of it." Thus reflecting, the king silently descended
from the roof of the palace, and entered his private apartments,
and there spent the rest of the night.
And the next morning, Víravara came to present himself at the time
of audience, and then the delighted king related to the ministers all
that Víravara had gone through during the night, so that they were all,
as it were, thunderstruck with wonder. Then the king gave to Víravara
and his son the sovereignty over the provinces of Láta and Karnáta,
as a token of his regard. Then the two kings, Víravara and Súdraka,
being equal in power, lived happily in the interchange of mutual
good offices.
When the Vetála had told this exceedingly wonderful story, he went
on to say to king Trivikramasena, "So tell me, king, who was the
bravest of all these, and if you know and do not tell, the curse,
which I before mentioned, shall descend upon you."
When the king heard this, he answered the Vetála, "King Súdraka was the
greatest hero of them all." Then the Vetála said, "Was not Víravara
greater, for his equal is not found on this earth? And was not his
wife braver, who, though a mother, endured to witness with her own eyes
the offering up of her son as a victim? And was not his son Sattvavara
braver, who, though a mere child, displayed such preëminent courage? So
why do you say that king Súdraka was more heroic than these?"
When the Vetála said this, the king answered him, "Do not say
so! Víravara was a man of high birth, one in whose family it was a
tradition that life, son, and wife must be sacrificed to protect the
sovereign. And his wife also was of good birth, chaste, worshipping
her husband only, and her chief duty was to follow the path traced
out for her by her husband. And Sattvavara was like them, being their
son; assuredly, such as are the threads, such is the web produced from
them. But Súdraka excelled them all, because he was ready to lay down
his life for those servants, by the sacrifice of whose lives kings
are wont to save their own."
When the Vetála heard that speech from that king, he at once left
his shoulder, and returned invisibly to his former place by his
supernatural power, but the king resolutely set out on his former
path in that cemetery at night to bring him back again.
NOTE.
For the story of Víravara, see Vol. I, pp. 253 and 519. Oesterley
refers us to Benfey's Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 414, where it is shown
to be based upon the Asadrisa Játaka of Buddha. The story is found in
the Persian Tútínámah, No 21, (in Iken, p. 89,) in a form resembling
that in the Hitopadesa. But there is another form which is No. 2
in the same work of Kaderi and found in the older Tútínámah, (p. 17
in Iken,) which seems to be based on the Vetála Panchavinsati. This
is also found in the Turkish Tútínámah. Jánbáz saves the life of a
king by the mere determination to sacrifice himself and his whole
family. (Oesterley's Baitál Pachísí, pp. 185-187.) Benfey refers us
to No. 39 in Basile's Pentamerone, [Liebrecht's German translation,
Vol. II, pp. 116-134,] and to No. 6 in Grimm's Kinder-Märchen.
CHAPTER LXXIX.
(Vetála 5.)