The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
supporting him with his hand, drew him out of that well, and said to
him, [528] "If you are a man and not a god, how did you reach this city
of the Gandharvas inaccessible to man? Tell me!" Then Naraváhanadatta
answered him, "A Vidyádharí brought me here, and threw me into the well
by her power." Then the good Gandharva Vínádatta, seeing that he had
the veritable signs of an emperor, took him to his own dwelling, and
waited upon him with all the luxuries at his command. And the next day,
Naraváhanadatta, perceiving that the inhabitants of the city carried
lyres in their hands, said to his host, "Why have all these people,
even down to the children, got lyres in their hands?" [529]
Then Vínádatta gave him this answer, "Ságaradatta the king of the
Gandharvas, who lives here, has a daughter named Gandharvadattá, who
eclipses the nymphs of heaven; it seems as if the Creator had blended
nectar, the moon, and sandalwood, and other choice things, in order
to compose her body, as a specimen of his skill in making all that is
fair. She is always singing to the lyre the hymn of Vishnu, which the
god himself bestowed on her, and so she has attained supreme skill in
music. [530] And the princess has firmly resolved that whoever is so
well skilled in music, that he can play on the lyre, and sing perfectly
in three scales a song in praise of Vishnu, shall be her husband. The
consequence is, that all here are trying to learn to play the lyre, but
they have not acquired the amount of skill demanded by the princess."
Prince Naraváhanadatta was delighted at hearing this speech from the
mouth of Vínádatta and he said to him, "All the accomplishments have
chosen me for a husband, and I know all the music, that there is in
the three worlds." When he said this, his friend Vínádatta conducted
him into the presence of king Ságaradatta, and said there, "Here is
Naraváhanadatta, the son of the king of Vatsa, who has fallen into
your city from the hand of a Vidyádharí. He is an adept in music,
and he knows the song in praise of Vishnu, in which the princess
Gandharvadattá takes so much pleasure." When the king heard this, he
said, "It is true; I heard so much before from the Gandharvas; so I
must to-day receive him with respect here. And he is an emanation of
a divinity; he is not out of place in the abode of gods; otherwise,
if he were a man, how could he have come here by associating with a
Vidyádharí? So summon Gandharvadattá quickly and let us test him." When
the king said this, the chamberlains went to fetch her.
And the fair one came there, all glorious with flower-ornaments,
agitating with her beauty, as if with a wind, the creepers of
spring. She sat down at her father's side, and the servants told her
what had taken place, and immediately, at his command, she sang a
song to the lyre. When she was joining the notes to the quarter-tones,
like Sarasvatí the wife of Brahmá, Naraváhanadatta was astonished at
her singing and her beauty. Then he said to her, "Princess, your lyre
does not seem to me to sound well, I think there must be a hair on
the string." Thereupon the lyre was examined, and they found the hair
where he said, and that astonished even the Gandharvas. Then the king
took the lyre from his daughter's hand, and gave it to him, saying,
"Prince, take this, and pour nectar into our ears." Then he played on
it, and sang the hymn of Vishnu with such skill that the Gandharvas
there became motionless as painted pictures.
Then Gandharvadattá herself threw on him a look tender with affection,
as it were a garland of full-blown blue lotuses, [531] and therewith
chose him as her husband. When the king saw it, and called to
mind his promise of that import, he at once gave him his daughter
Gandharvadattá in marriage. As for the wedding that thereupon took
place, gladdened by the drums of the gods and other festal signs,
to what could we compare it, as it served as the standard by which
to estimate all similar rejoicings? Then Naraváhanadatta lived there
with his new bride Gandharvadattá in heavenly bliss.
And one day he went out to behold the beauty of the city, and after he
had seen all kinds of places, he entered the park attached to it. There
he saw a heavenly female descending from the sky with her daughter,
like the lightning with the rain in a cloudless atmosphere. And she
was saying to her daughter, as she descended, recognising him by
her knowledge, "This, my daughter, is your future husband, the son
of the king of Vatsa." "When he saw her alight and come towards him,
he said to her, "Who are you, and why have you come?" And the heavenly
female said to him, thus introducing the object of her desire:
"Prince, I am Dhanavatí, the wife of a chief of the Vidyádharas, named
Sinha, and this is my unmarried daughter, the sister of Chandasinha,
and her name is Ajinávatí. You were announced as her future husband by
a voice that came from heaven. Then, learning by my magic science, that
you, the future emperor of the Vidyádharas, had been deposited here
by Vegavatí, I came to tell you my desire. You ought not to remain in
such a place as this which is accessible to the Vidyádharas, for they
might slay you out of enmity, as you are alone, and have not obtained
your position of emperor. So come, let us now take you to a land which
is inaccessible to them. Does not the moon delay to shine, when the
circle of the sun is eclipsed? And when the auspicious day arrives you
shall marry this daughter of mine." When she had said this, she took
him and flew up into the air with him, and her daughter accompanied
them. And she took him to the city of Srávastí, and deposited him in
a garden, and then she disappeared with her daughter Ajinávatí.
There king Prasenajit, who had returned from a distant hunting
expedition, saw that prince of noble form and feature. The king
approached him full of curiosity, and asked him his name and lineage,
and then, being much delighted, courteously conducted him to his
palace. It was full of troops of elephants, adorned with lines
of horses, and looked like a pavilion for the Fortune of empire
to rest in, when wearied with her wanderings. Wherever a man born
to prosperity may be, felicities eagerly approach him, as women do
their beloved one. This accounts for the fact that the king, being
an admirer of excellence, gave Naraváhanadatta his own daughter,
named Bhagírathayasas. And the prince lived happily there with her
in great luxury, as if with Good Fortune created by the Disposer in
flesh and blood for his delectation.
One evening, when the lover of the night had arisen, raining joy into
the eyes of men, looking like the full-orbed face [532] of the nymph
of the eastern quarter, or rather the countenance of Bhagírathayasas
charming as nectar, reflected in the pure mirror of the cloudless
heaven, he drank wine with that fair one at her request on the top of
a palace silvered over with the elixir of moonlight. He quaffed the
liquor which was adorned with the reflection of his beloved's face,
and so gave pleasure to his eyes as well as to his palate. And then he
considered the moon as far inferior in beauty to his charmer's face,
for it wanted the intoxicating [533] play of the eyes and eyebrows. And
after his drinking-bout was over he went inside the house, and retired
to his couch with Bhagírathayasas.
Then Naraváhanadatta awoke from sleep, while his beloved was still
sleeping, and suddenly calling to mind his home, exclaimed, "Through
love for Bhagírathayasas I have, so to speak, forgotten my other wives;
how can that have happened? But in this too Fate is all-powerful. Far
away too are my ministers. Of them Marubhúti takes pleasure in nought
but feats of prowess, and Harisikba is exclusively devoted to policy;
of those two I do not now feel the need, but it grieves me that
the dexterous Gomukha, who has been my friend in all emergencies,
is far away from me." While he was thus lamenting, he suddenly heard
the words "Ah! how sad!" uttered in a low soft tone, like that of a
woman, and they at once banished sleep. When he heard them, he got up,
and lighted a candle, and looked about, and he saw in the window a
lovely female face. It seemed as if the Disposer had determined out
of playfulness to show him a second but spotless moon not in the sky,
as he had that night seen the spot-beflecked moon of heaven. And not
being able to discern the rest of her body, but eager to behold it,
his eyes being attracted by her beauty, he immediately said to himself,
"Long ago, when the Daitya Átápin was impeding the creation of Brahmá,
that god employed the artifice of sending him to Nandana, saying to
him, 'Go there and see a very curious sight;' and when he got there,
he saw only the foot of a woman, which was of wonderful beauty; and
so he died from an insane desire to see the rest of her body. [534]
In the same way it may be that the Disposer has produced this lady's
face only to bring about my destruction." While he was making this
momentary surmise, the lady displayed her shoot-like finger at the
window, and beckoned to him to come towards her.
Then he deliberately went out of the chamber in which his beloved was
sleeping, and with eager impatience approached that heavenly lady:
and when he came near, she exclaimed, "Madanamanchuká, they say that
your husband is in love with another woman: alas! you are undone." When
Naraváhanadatta heard this, he called to mind his beloved, and the fire
of separation flamed up in his bosom, and he said to that fair one,
"Who are you? Where did you see my beloved Madanamanchuká? And why have
you come to me? Tell me!" Then the bold lady took the prince away to
a distance in the night, and saying to him, "Hear the whole story,"
she thus began to speak.
"There is in the city of Pushkarávatí a prince of the Vidyádharas
named Pingalagándhára, who has become yellow with continually adoring
the fire. Know that I am his unmarried daughter, named Prabhávatí,
for he obtained me by the special favour of the god of fire, who
was pleased with his adoration. I went to the city of Ashádbapura to
visit my friend Vegavatí, and I did not find her there, as she had
gone somewhere to perform asceticism. But hearing from her mother
Prithivídeví that your beloved Madanamanchuká was there, I went to
her. I beheld her emaciated with fasting, pale and squalid, with
only one lock, weeping, talking only of your virtues, surrounded by
tearful bands of Vidyádhara princesses, who were divided between grief
produced by seeing her, and joy produced by hearing of you. She told
me what you were like, and I comforted her by promising to bring you,
for my mind was overpowered by pity for her, and attracted by your
excellences. And finding out by means of my magic skill that you were
here at present, I came to you, to inserve her interests and my own
also. But when I found that you had forgotten your first love and
were talking here of other persons, I bewailed the lot of that wife
of yours, and exclaimed 'Ah! how sad!'"
When the prince had been thus addressed by her, he became impatient
and said, "Take me where she is, and impose on me whatever command
you think fit." When the Vidyádharí Prabhávatí heard that, she flew up
into the air with him, and proceeded to journey on through the moonlit
night. And as she was going along, she saw a fire burning in a certain
place, so she took Naraváhanadatta's hand, and moved round it, keeping
it on the right. In this way the bold lady managed by an artifice to
go through the ceremony of marriage with Naraváhanadatta, for all the
actions of heavenly beings have some important end in view. [535]
Then she pointed out to her beloved from the sky the earth looking
like a sacrificial platform, the rivers like snakes, the mountains