The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
ground: and when he recovered consciousness, he wept for a long time,
with queen Vásavadattá and his courtiers, for his father-in-law and
mother-in-law who had gone to heaven. But his ministers roused him
by saying to him, 'In this transient world what is there that hath
permanence? Moreover you ought not to weep for that king, who has you
for a son-in-law, and Gopálaka for a son, and whose daughter's son is
Naraváhanadatta.' When he had been thus admonished and roused from
his prostration, he gave the offering of water to his father-in-law
and mother-in-law.
"Then that king of Vatsa said, with throat half-choked with tears, to
his afflicted brother-in-law Gopálaka, who remained at his side out
of affection, [605] 'Rise up, go to Ujjayiní, and take care of your
father's kingdom, for I have heard from a messenger that the people
are expecting you.' When Gopálaka heard this, he said, weeping, to
the king of Vatsa, 'I cannot bear to leave you and my sister, to go
to Ujjayiní. Moreover, I cannot bring myself to endure the sight of
my native city, now that my father is not in it. So let Pálaka, my
younger brother, be king there with my full consent.' When Gopálaka
had by these words shown his unwillingness to accept the kingdom,
the king of Vatsa sent his commander-in-chief Rumanvat to the city of
Ujjayiní, and had his younger brother-in-law, named Pálaka, crowned
king of it, with his elder brother's consent.
"And reflecting on the instability of all things, he became disgusted
with the objects of sense, and said to Yangandharáyana and his other
ministers, 'In this unreal cycle of mundane existence all objects
are at the end insipid; and I have ruled my realm, I have enjoyed
pleasures, I have conquered my enemies; I have seen my son in the
possession of paramount sway over the Vidyádharas; and now my allotted
time has passed away together with my connections; and old age has
seized me by the hair to hand me over to death; and wrinkles have
invaded my body, as the strong invade the kingdom of a weakling; [606]
so I will go to mount Kálinjara, and abandoning this perishable body,
will there obtain the imperishable mansion of which they speak.' When
the ministers had been thus addressed by the king, they thought over
the matter; and then they all and queen Vásavadattá said to him with
calm equanimity, 'Let it be, king, as it has pleased your highness;
by your favour we also will try to obtain a high position in the
next world.'
"When they had said this to the king, being like-minded with himself,
he formed a deliberate resolution, and said to his elder brother-in-law
Gopálaka, who was present, 'I look upon you and Naraváhanadatta
as equally my sons; so take care of this Kausámbí, I give you my
kingdom.' When the king of Vatsa said this to Gopálaka, he replied,
'My destination is the same as yours, I cannot bear to leave you.' This
he asserted in a persistent manner, being ardently attached to his
sister; whereupon the king of Vatsa said to him, assuming [607] an
anger, that he did not feel, 'To-day you have become disobedient,
so as to affect a hypocritical conformity to my will; and no wonder,
for who cares for the command of one who is falling from his place
of power.' When the king spoke thus roughly to him, Gopálaka wept,
with face fixed on the ground, and though he had determined to go to
the forest, he turned back for a moment from his intention.
"Then the king mounted an elephant, and accompanied by the queens
Vásavadattá and Padmávatí, set out with his ministers. And when he
left Kausámbí, the citizens followed him, with their wives, children,
and aged sires, crying aloud and raining a tempest of tears. The king
comforted them by saying to them, 'Gopálaka will take care of you,'
and so at last he induced them to return, and passed on to mount
Kálinjara. And he reached it, and went up it, and worshipped Siva,
and holding in his hand his lyre Ghoshavatí, that he had loved all
his life, and accompanied by his queens that were ever at his side,
and Yangandharáyana and his other ministers, he hurled himself from the
cliff. And even as they fell, a fiery chariot came and caught up the
king and his companions, and they went in a blaze of glory to heaven."
When Naraváhanadatta heard this from the science, he exclaimed,
"Alas! my father!" and fell senseless on the ground. And when he
recovered consciousness, he bewailed his father and mother and his
father's ministers, in company with his own ministers, who had lost
their fathers.
But the chiefs of the Vidyádharas and Dhanavatí admonished him,
saying, "How is it, king, that you are beside yourself, though you
know the nature of this versatile world that perishes in a moment,
and is like the show of a juggler? And how can you lament for your
parents that are not to be lamented for, as they have done all they
had to do on earth; who have seen you their son sole emperor over
all the Vidyádharas?" When he had been thus admonished, he offered
water to his parents, and put another question to that science,
"Where is my uncle Gopálaka now? What did he do?" Then that science
went on to say to the king,
"When the king of Vatsa had gone to the mountain from which he meant
to throw himself, Gopálaka, having lamented for him and his sister,
and considering all things unstable, remained outside the city, and
summoning his brother Pálaka from Ujjayiní, made over to him that
kingdom of Kausámbí also. And then, having seen his younger brother
established in two kingdoms, he went to the hermitage of Kasyapa in
the ascetic-grove on the Black Mountain, [608] bent on abandoning the
world. And there your uncle Gopálaka now is, clothed with a dress of
bark, in the midst of self-mortifying hermits."
When Naraváhanadatta heard that, he went in a chariot to the Black
Mountain, with his suite, eager to visit that uncle. There he
alighted from the sky, surrounded by Vidyádhara princes, and beheld
that hermitage of the hermit Kasyapa. It seemed to gaze on him with
many roaming black antelope like rolling eyes, and to welcome him
with the songs of its birds. With the lines of smoke ascending into
the sky, where pious men were offering the Agnihotra oblations, it
seemed to point the way to heaven to the hermits. It was full of many
mountain-like huge elephants, and resorted to by troops of monkeys
[609]; and so seemed like a strange sort of Pátála, above ground,
and free from darkness.
In the midst of that grove of ascetics, he beheld his uncle surrounded
by hermits, with long matted locks, clothed in the bark of a tree,
looking like an incarnation of patience. And Gopálaka, when he saw his
sister's son approach, rose up and embraced him, and pressed him to his
bosom with tearful eyes. Then they, both of them, lamented their lost
dear ones with renewed grief; whom will not the fire of grief torture,
when fanned by the blast of a meeting with relations? When even the
animals there were pained to see their grief, Kasyapa and the other
hermits came up and consoled those two. Then that day came to an end,
and next morning the emperor entreated Gopálaka to come and dwell in
his kingdom. But Gopálaka said to him, "What, my child, do you not
suppose that I have all the happiness I desire by thus seeing you? If
you love me, remain here in this hermitage, during this rainy season,
which has arrived."
When Naraváhanadatta had been thus entreated by his uncle, he remained
in the hermitage of Kasyapa on the Black Mountain, with his attendants,
for the term mentioned.
CHAPTER CXII.
Now, one day, when Naraváhanadatta was in the hall of audience on
the Black Mountain, his Commander-in-chief came before him, and said,
"Last night, my sovereign, when I was on the top of my house, looking
after my troops, I saw a woman being carried off through the air by
a heavenly being, crying out, 'Alas! my husband!' and it seemed as if
the moon, which is powerful at that season, had taken her and carried
her off, finding that she robbed it of all its beauty. I exclaimed, 'Ah
villain! where will you go, thus carrying off the wife of another? In
the kingdom of king Naraváhanadatta the protector, which is the
territory of the Vidyádharas, extending over sixty thousand yojanas,
even animals do not work wickedness, much less other creatures.' When
I had said this, I hastened with my attendants and arrested that
swift-footed [610] one, and brought him down from the air with the
lady: and when we looked at him, after bringing him down, we found
that it was your brother-in-law, the Vidyádhara Ityaka, the brother of
your principal queen, born to Madanavega by queen Kalingasená. We said
to him, 'Who is this lady, and where are you taking her?' and then he
answered; 'This is Suratamanjarí the daughter of the Vidyádhara chief
Matangadeva by Chútamanjarí. Her mother promised her to me long ago;
and then her father bestowed her on another, a mere man. So, if I
have to-day recovered my own wife, and carried her off, what harm
have I done?' When Ityaka had said so much, he was silent.
"Then I said to Suratamanjarí, 'Lady, by whom were you married,
and how did this person get possession of you?' Then she said,
'There is in Ujjayiní a fortunate king named Pálaka, he has a son,
a prince named [611] Avantivardhana; by him I was married; and this
night, when I was asleep on the top of the palace, and my husband was
asleep also, I was carried off by this villain.' When she said this,
I kept both of them here, the lady and Ityaka, the latter in fetters;
it now remains for your majesty to decide what is to be done."
When the emperor heard this from his Commander-in-chief Harisikha, he
went in some perplexity to Gopálaka, and told him the story. Gopálaka
said, "My dear nephew, I do not know about this; I know so much,
that the lady was lately married to Pálaka's son; so let the prince
be summoned from Ujjayiní, together with the minister Bharataroha;
then we shall get at the truth." When the emperor received this
advice from his uncle, he sent the Vidyádhara Dhúmasikha to Pálaka
his younger uncle, and summoned from Ujjayiní that prince, his son,
and the minister. When they arrived and bowed before the emperor,
he and Gopálaka received them with love and courtesy, and questioned
them about the matter under consideration.
Then, in the presence of Avantivardhana, who looked like the moon
robbed of the night, [612] of Suratamanjarí, her father, and of
Ityaka, of Váyupatha and his peers, and the hermit Kasyapa, and the
men-at-arms, Bharataroha began to speak as follows, "Once on a time
all the citizens of Ujjayiní met together and said to Pálaka the king
of that city 'To-morrow the festival, called the giving of water,
will take place in this city, and if your majesty has not heard the
true account of the origin of this festival, please listen to it now.'"
Story of king Chandamahásena and the Asura's daughter. [613]
Long ago your father Chandamahásena propitiated the goddess Chandí
with asceticism, in order to obtain a splendid sword and a wife. She
gave him her own sword, and about a wife said to him, "Thou shalt soon
slay, my son, the Asura called Angáraka, and obtain his beautiful
daughter Angáravatí for a wife." When the king had been favoured
with this revelation from the goddess, he remained thinking on the
Asura's daughter.
Now, at this time, everybody that was appointed head police officer
in Ujjayiní, was at once carried off by some creature at night and
devoured. And this went on night after night. Then Chandamahásena
roaming leisurely about the city at night, to investigate the matter
for himself, found an adulterer. He cut off with his sword his oiled
and curled head, and no sooner was his neck severed than a certain