The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
its import, and he roamed hither and thither with that object.
And after he had roamed about awhile, he saw in a certain retired
spot four Vidyádhara maidens preparing to enter the fire at the same
time. And when he asked them the cause, those fair ones told him how
Váyuvegayasas had broken her solemn agreement. Then Gomukha went
and told it to king Naraváhanadatta in the presence of all there,
exactly as he had seen and heard. When the king heard it, he smiled,
but Váyuvegayasas said, "Arise, my husband, let us two quickly go and
save these maidens; afterwards I will tell you the reason of this act
of theirs." When she said this to the king, he went with her and with
all his followers to the spot where the tragedy was to take place.
And he saw those maidens with a blazing fire in front of them; and
Váyuvegayasas, after dragging them away from it, said to the king,
"This first here is Káliká, the daughter of the lord of Kálakúta, and
this second is Vidyutpunjá, the daughter of Vidyutpunja; and this third
is Matanginí, the daughter of Mandara; and this fourth is Padmaprabhá
the daughter of Mahádanshtra; and I am the fifth; all we five, when
we saw you performing asceticism in the domain of the Siddhas, were
bewildered with love, and we made the following mutual agreement,
'We will all five [566] at the same time take this prince as our dear
husband, and no one of us must surrender herself to him alone; if any
one of us marries him separately, the others shall enter the fire to
bring down vengeance on her who has been guilty of such treachery
to friends.' It was out of respect for this agreement that I did
not wish to marry you separately; indeed I did not even to-day give
myself to you; you, my husband, and the guardians of the world can
bear testimony as to whether even now I have broken this agreement
willingly. So now, my husband, marry also those friends of mine;
and you, my friends, must not let any other lot befall you." [567]
When she said this, those maidens, who had escaped from death, rejoiced
and embraced one another; and the king was delighted in his heart. And
the fathers of the ladies, hearing what had taken place, came there
immediately, and bestowed their daughters on Naraváhanadatta. And
those chiefs of the Vidyádharas, headed by the lord of Kálakúta,
[568] agreed to accept the sovereignty of their son-in-law. Thus
Naraváhanadatta obtained at one stroke the daughters of five great
Vidyádharas, and gained great importance thereby.
And the prince remained there some days with those wives, and then
his Commander-in-Chief Harisikha said, "Why, my liege, though you are
versed in the approved treatises on the subject, do you act contrary to
policy? What means this devotion on your part to the pleasures of love,
when it is time to fight? This raising of an expedition to conquer
Mandaradeva, and this your dallying for so many days with your wives,
are things wholly incompatible." When Harisikha said this, the great
king answered him, "Your reproof is just, but I am not acting for my
own pleasure in all this; this allying of myself with wives involves
the acquisition of friends; and is so the most efficacious method
at present of crushing the foe; this is why I have had recourse to
it. So let these my troops now advance to the conquest of the enemy!"
When the king had given this order, his father-in-law Mandara said to
him, "King, that Mandaradeva lives in a distant and difficult country,
and he will be hard for you to overcome until you have achieved all
the distinctive jewels of an emperor. For he is protected by the cave,
called the cave of Trisírsha, [569] which forms the approach to his
kingdom, and the entrance of which is guarded by the great champion
Devamáya. But that cave can be forced by an emperor who has obtained
the jewels. And the sandal-wood tree, which is one of the jewels of
an emperor, is in this country, so quickly gain possession of it,
in order that you may attain the ends you have in view. For no one
who is not an emperor ever gets near that tree."
Having heard this from Mandara, Naraváhanadatta set out at night,
fasting and observing a strict vow, for that sandal-wood tree. As
the hero went along, very terrible portents arose to bewilder him,
but he was not terrified at them, and so he reached the foot of that
mighty tree. And when he saw that sandal-wood tree surrounded with
a lofty platform made of precious jewels, he climbed up to it with
ladders and adored it. The tree then said to him with bodiless voice,
"Emperor, thou hast won me the sandal-wood tree, and when thou thinkest
on me, I will appear to thee, so leave this place at present, and go to
Govindakúta; thus thou wilt win the other jewels also; and then thou
wilt easily conquer Mandaradeva." On hearing this, Naraváhanadatta,
the mighty sovereign of the Vidyádharas, said, "I will do so," and
being now completely successful, he worshipped that heavenly tree,
[570] and went delighted through the air to his own camp.
There he spent that night; and the next morning in the hall of
audience he related at full length, in the presence of all, his
night's adventure by which he had won the sandal-wood tree. And when
they heard it, his wives, and the ministers who had grown up with him
from infancy, and those Vidyádharas who were devoted to him, namely,
Váyupatha and the other chiefs with their forces, and the Gandharvas,
headed by Chitrángada, were delighted at this sudden attainment of
great success, and praised his heroism remarkable for its uninterrupted
flow of courage, enterprise, and firmness. And after deliberating with
them, the king, determined to overthrow the pride of Mandaradeva,
set out in a heavenly chariot for the mountain of Govindakúta, in
order to obtain the other jewels spoken of by the sandal-wood tree.
BOOK XV.
CHAPTER CIX.
May Ganesa, who at night seems with the spray blown forth from his
hissing trunk uplifted in the tumultuous dance, to be feeding the
stars, dispel your darkness!
Then, as the emperor Naraváhanadatta was in his hall of audience on
the mountain Govindakúta, a Vidyádhara named Amritaprabha came to him
through the air, the same who had before saved him, when he was flung
down by his enemy on the Mountain of Fire. That Vidyádhara came and
humbly made himself known, and having been lovingly entertained by
that emperor, said to him, "There is a great mountain named Malaya in
the southern region; and in a hermitage on it lives a great hermit
named Vámadeva. He, my liege, invites you to come to him alone for
the sake of some important affair, and on this account he has sent me
to you to-day. Moreover you are my sovereign, won by previous merits;
and therefore have I come; so come along with me; let us quickly go
to that hermit in order to ensure your success!"
When that Vidyádhara had said this, Naraváhanadatta left his wives and
forces there, and himself flew up into the air with that Vidyádhara,
and in that way quickly reached the Malaya mountain, and approached
the hermit Vámadeva. And he beheld that hermit white with age, tall of
stature, with eye-balls sparkling like bright jewels in the fleshless
sockets of his eyes, the depository of the jewels of the emperor of
the Vidyádharas, with his matted hair waving like creepers, looking
like the Himálaya range accompanying the prince, to assist him in
attaining success. Then the prince worshipped the feet of that sage,
and he entertained him, and said to him, "You are the god of Love
consumed long ago by Siva, and appointed by him emperor of all the
Vidyádhara chiefs, because he was pleased with Rati. [571] Now, I
have in this my hermitage, within the deep recess of an inner cave,
certain jewels, which I will point out to you, and you must seize
them. For you will find Mandaradeva easy enough to conquer, after you
have obtained the jewels; and it was with this object that I invited
you hither by the command of Siva."
When the hermit had said this to him, and had instructed him in the
right method of procedure, Naraváhanadatta joyfully entered that
cave. In it the hero overcame many and various obstacles, and then
he beheld a huge furious elephant charging him with a deep guttural
roar. The king smote it on the forehead with his fist, and placed his
feet on its tusks, and actively mounted that furious elephant. And
a bodiless voice came from the cave, "Bravo, emperor! thou hast won
the jewel of the mighty elephant." Then he saw a sword looking like
a mighty snake, and he fell upon it, and seized it, as if it were
the locks of the Fortune of Empire. Again a bodiless voice sounded
in the cave, "Bravo, conqueror of thy foes! thou hast obtained the
victorious sword-jewel." Then he obtained the moonlight-jewel and the
wife-jewel, and the jewel of charms, named the destroying charm. And
thus having achieved in all seven jewels (useful in time of need, and
bestowers of majesty), taking into account the two first, the lake and
the sandal-wood tree, he went out from that cave and told the hermit
Vámadeva that he had succeeded in accomplishing all his objects. [572]
Then the hermit said lovingly to that emperor, "Go, my son, now
that you have obtained the jewels of a great emperor, and conquer
Mandaradeva on the north side of Kailása, and enjoy the glorious
fortune of the sovereignty of both sides of that mountain." When the
hermit had said this to him, the successful emperor bowed before him,
and went off through the air with Amritaprabha. And in a moment he
reached his camp on Govindakúta guarded by his mighty mother-in-law
Dhanavatí. Then those kings of the Vidyádharas, that had sided
with him, and his wives and his ministers, who were all watching
for him, saw him, and welcomed him with delight. Then he sat down
and they questioned him, and he told them how he had seen the hermit
Vámadeva, and how he had entered the cave, and how he had obtained the
jewels. Then a great festival took place there, in which celestial
drums were joyfully beaten, and the Vidyádharas danced, and people
generally were drunk with wine.
And the next day, in a moment in which a malignant planet stood in
the house of his foe, and one which argued his own success [573] as
a planet benignant to him, predominated over his enemy's house, and
which was fraught with every other kind of prosperity, Naraváhanadatta
performed the ceremonies for good fortune, and ascended that car made
by Brahmá, which Siva had bestowed on him, and set out with his army
through the air, accompanied by his wives, to conquer Mandaradeva. And
various heroes, his followers, marched surrounding him, and kings of
the Gandharvas and chiefs of the Vidyádharas, fearless and faithful,
obedient to the orders of the general Harisikha, and Chandasinha,
with his mother the wise Dhanavatí, and the brave Pingalagándhára,
and Váyupatha the strong, and Vidyutpunja and Amitagati, and the
lord of Kálakúta, and Mandara, and Mahádanshtra and his own friend
Amritaprabha, and the hero Chitrángada with Ságaradatta,--all these,
and others who were there of the party of the slain Gaurímunda,
pressed eagerly after him, with their hosts, as he advanced intent
on victory. Then the sky was obscured by his army, and the sun hid
his face, as if for shame, somewhere or other, his brightness being
eclipsed by the splendour of the monarch.
Then the emperor passed the Mánasa lake haunted by troops of divine
hermits, and left behind him Gandasáila the pleasure-garden of the
nymphs of heaven, and reached the foot of mount Kailása gleaming
white like crystal, resembling a mass of his own glory. [574] There he
encamped on the bank of the Mandákiní, and while he was sitting there,
the wise chief of the Vidyádharas, named Mandara, came up to him, and