The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
the hermit had said this to Merudhvaja, he said to the Daitya warriors,
"Do not be afraid, we must not slay you, but you must henceforth be
subject to the sway of this Muktáphaladhvaja and his brother." When
the king said this to the Dánavas, they joyfully consented to his
proposal. Then the king had Trailokyamálin, the sovereign of the
Daityas, with his son and the others, conveyed to Svetasaila. And he
placed them in confinement in that cave, and had them guarded by his
principal minister, who was backed by a force of many brave warriors.
Then, the battle having come to an end, and the gods, who were
present in their chariots, having departed, after showering mandára
flowers, an universal rejoicing took place over the whole world,
and the victorious king Merudhvaja said to his two sons, "I will
remain here for the present to guard the sacrifice, and do you march
to Pátála with these soldiers of ours, who have possessed themselves
of many chariots belonging to the Daityas, and with those soldiers of
the Asura army who have escaped destruction. And conciliate and win
over to our allegiance the inhabitants of Pátála, and appoint chief
governors throughout the territory, and having thus taken possession
of it you must return here."
When the heroic Muktáphaladhvaja, who was mounted on his heavenly
steed, that went with a wish, and Malayadhvaja heard this, the two
brothers, with their forces, entered Rasátala, together with that
portion of the army of the Dánavas, that had made submission, which
marched in front of them. And they killed the guards that opposed them
in various places, and proclaimed an amnesty to the others by beat
of drum. And, as the people shewed confidence and were submissive,
they took possession of the seven Rasátalas, adorned with splendid
palaces [713] built of various jewels, and they enjoyed those palaces
which were rendered delightful by gardens that gratified every wish,
and had in them lakes of heavenly wine with many ladders of precious
stone. And there they beheld Dánava ladies of wonderful beauty,
and their daughters, who by means of magic concealed their forms
within trees.
And then Svayamvaraprabhá, the wife of Trailokyamálin, began
austerities in order to bring about the welfare of her imprisoned
husband, and in the same way her daughters, Trailokyaprabhá and
Tribhuvanaprabhá, began austerities for the welfare of their father.
And those princes honoured with various favours all the inhabitants
of Pátála, who were happy now that they had obtained repose; and they
appointed Sangrámasinha and others governors, and went to their father
in the hermitage of Tapodhana.
And in the meanwhile the sacrifice of the hermit there reached
completion, and the gods and the rishis prepared to go to their own
abodes. [714] And as Indra was exceedingly pleased, Merudhvaja said
to him, "Come with me to my city, king of heaven, if thou be pleased
with me." When Indra heard that, he went, in order to please him,
with the king and his son to the city of Devasabha, after taking leave
of the hermit. And there the king, who was sovereign of two worlds,
entertained Indra so sumptuously, that he forgot his happiness in
heaven. Then Indra too, being gratified, took the king and his sons
in his own heavenly chariot to his celestial abode, and in that place
which was charming with the pleasures of a concert in which Nárada,
Rambhá and others performed, he made Merudhvaja, with Muktáphaladhvaja
and Malayadhvaja, forget their toils, and gave them garlands from
the Párijáta-tree, and celestial diadems, and after honouring them,
sent them home.
And they, when they returned, kept going to and fro between the earth
and Pátála, and though kings of men, bare sway in two worlds. Then
Merudhvaja said to Muktáphaladhvaja, "Our enemies are conquered;
you two brothers are young men, and I have various princesses who
are subject to my sway, and I have sent for some of them: the fitting
time has come; so take to yourselves wives."
When Muktáphaladhvaja's father said this to him, he answered,
"Father, my mind is not inclined to marriage at present. I will now
perform a course of austerities to propitiate [715] Siva; but let
this Malayadhvaja my dear younger brother, be married." When his
younger brother Malayadhvaja heard this, he said, "Noble brother,
is it fitting that I should be married, before you have taken a wife,
or that I should hold sway while you are without a kingdom? I follow
in your footsteps."
When Malayadhvaja said this, king Merudhvaja said to his eldest son
Muktáphaladhvaja, "Your younger brother here has spoken rightly, but
what you have just said is not right; it is no time for asceticism
in this fresh youth of yours; the present should be to you a time of
enjoyment; so abandon, my son, this perverse crotchet of yours, which
is most inopportune." Though the king addressed these admonitions
to his eldest son, that prince resolutely refused to take a wife:
so the king remained silent, to wait for a more favourable time.
In the meanwhile, in Pátála, the two daughters of Trailokyamálin's
wife, Svayamprabhá, who were engaged in austerities, said to their
mother, "Mother, when one of us was seven and the other eight years
old, owing to our want of merits, [716] our father was imprisoned,
and we were hurled from the royal rank. It is now the eighth year,
that we have been engaged in austerities, and yet Siva is not
pleased with us, and our father has not, as yet, been released from
his imprisonment. So let us even consume these unlucky bodies in the
fire, before we also are imprisoned, or experience some other insult
at the hands of our enemy."
When Svayamprabhá's daughters said this to her, she answered them,
"Wait a while, my daughters, we shall regain our former glory. For
I know that, while I was engaged in austerities, the god Siva said
to me in a dream, 'My child, be of good courage; thy husband shall
recover his kingdom, and the princes Muktáphaladhvaja and Malayadhvaja
shall be the husbands of thy two daughters. And do not suppose that
they are men; for one of them is a noble Vidyádhara, and the other
is a Gana of mine.' When I had received this revelation from Siva, I
woke up at the close of night; and supported by this hope I have borne
great suffering. So I will inform the king your father of this matter,
and with his consent, I will endeavour to bring about your marriage."
When the queen Svayamprabhá had in these words comforted her daughters,
she said to Indumatí, an old woman of the harem, "Go to my husband in
the cave of Svetasaila, and fall at his feet, and say to him from me,
'My husband, the Creator has formed me of such strange wood, that,
though the fire of separation from you burns fiercely, I have not yet
been consumed by it. But it is because I entertain a hope of seeing
you again that I have not abandoned life.' When you have said this,
tell him the revelation that Siva made to me in a dream, then ask him
about the marriage of our daughters, and come back, and tell me what
he says; I will then act accordingly."
When she had said this, she sent off Indumatí; and she left Pátála and
reached the well-guarded entrance of that mountain-cave. She entreated
the guards and entered, and seeing Trailokyamálin there a prisoner,
she burst into tears, and embraced his feet; and when he asked her
how she was, she slowly told him all his wife's message; then that
king said, "As for what Siva says about my restoration to my kingdom,
may that turn out as the god announced, but the idea of my giving my
daughters to the sons of Merudhvaja is preposterous. I would rather
perish here than give my daughters as a present to enemies and men too,
while myself a prisoner."
When Indumatí had been sent away by the king with this message,
she went and delivered it to his wife Svayamprabhá. And when
Trailokyaprabhá and Tribhuvanaprabhá the daughters of the Daitya
sovereign heard it, they said to their mother Svayamprabhá, "Anxiety
lest our youthful purity should be outraged makes the fire seem our
only place of safety, so we will enter it, mother, on the fourteenth
day, that is now approaching." When they had thus resolved, their
mother and her suite also made up their minds to die. And when the
fourteenth day arrived, they all worshipped Hátakesvara, and made
pyres in a holy bathing-place called Páparipu.
Now it happened that on that very day king Merudhvaja, with his son,
and his wife, was coming there to worship Hátakesvara. And as he
was going to the holy water of Páparipu, with his suite, to bathe,
he saw smoke rising from the midst of a grove on its bank. And when
the king asked, "How comes smoke to be rising here?" those governors
he had set over Pátála, Sangrámasinha and the others, said to him,
"Great king, Svayamprabhá, the wife of Trailokyamálin, is engaged
in austerities here with her daughters the princesses. Without doubt
they are now performing here some sacrificial rite in honour of the
fire, or possibly they are wearied out with excessive asceticism,
and are immolating themselves by entering it."
When the king heard that, he went to see what was going on, with
his sons, and his wife, and those governors of Pátála, ordering the
rest of his suite to remain behind. And concealing himself there,
he beheld those Daitya maidens, with their mother, worshipping the
fire of the pyres, which was burning brightly. [717] They seemed
with the effulgence of the great beauty of their faces which shone
out in all directions, to be creating in the lower world a hundred
discs of the moon: and to be installing the god of love as king after
the conquest of the three worlds, with their swiftly-moving necklaces
that looked like liquid streams poured down from the golden pitchers
of their breasts. Their broad hips, surrounded with the girdles which
they wore, looked like the head of the elephant of love adorned with
a girdle of constellations. The long wavy masses of hair which they
bore, seemed like snakes made by the Creator to guard the treasure of
their beauty. When the king saw them, he was astonished, and he said,
"The creation of the Maker of All is surprising for the novelty that is
ever being manifested in it: [718] for neither Rambhá, nor Urvasí, nor
Tilottamá is equal in beauty to these two daughters of the Asura king."
While the king was making these reflections to himself,
Trailokyaprabhá, the elder of the two Daitya maidens, after worshipping
the god present in the Fire, addressed this prayer to him, "Since, from
the time that my mother told me of the revelation of Siva received by
her in a dream, my mind has been fixed upon prince Muktáphaladhvaja,
that treasure-house of virtue, as my chosen husband, I pray, holy one,
that he may be my husband in a future birth, inasmuch as, though in
this birth my mother wishes to give me to him, my haughty father,
being a captive, will not consent to it." When Tribhuvanaprabhá heard
that, she, in the same way, prayed to the Fire-god that Malayadhvaja
might be her husband in a future life.
Then king Merudhvaja, who was delighted at hearing that, and the
queen his wife said to one another, "If our two sons could obtain
these two maidens for their wives, they would reap fruit from their
conquest of the two worlds. So let us go to them and their mother,
before they have cast themselves into the fire, as they intend to
do in a moment, and dissuade them from doing so." When the king, in
consultation with the queen, had made up his mind to this, he went up
to them, and said, "Do not act rashly: for I will put a stop to your
sorrow." When all the Asura ladies heard this speech of the king's,
that seemed like a rain of nectar to their ears, and afterwards saw
him, they all bowed before him.