The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
When he gave this order to the gods, they did everything as he had
desired, and by means of those holy observances his sins were washed
[769] away, and he obtained the rank of Indra permanently. And by his
favour his friends and his female favourites, that he had summoned to
heaven, had their sins destroyed and obtained immortality. The next
day Chitragupta informed Yama that the gambler had by his discretion
obtained the rank of Indra permanently. Then Yama, hearing of his
meritorious actions, was astonished, and said, "Dear me! this gambler
has cheated us."
When Vrihaspati had told this story, he said, "Such, O wielder of
the thunderbolt, are gamblers," and then held his peace. And then
Indra sent Kalávatí to summon Thinthákarála to heaven. There the king
of the gods, pleased with his cleverness and resolution, honoured
him, and gave him Kalávatí to wife, and made him an attendant on
himself. Then the brave Thinthákarála lived happily, like a god,
in heaven, with Kalávatí, by the favour of Siva.
"So, you see, such is the style in which gamblers exhibit their
treachery and audacity; accordingly Agnisikha the Vampire, what is
there to be surprised at in your having been treacherously thrown
into this well by Dágineya the gambler? So come out of this pit,
friend, and we will come out also."
When the Bráhman demons said this to me, I came up out of that pit,
and being hungry, I came across a Bráhman traveller that night in the
city. So I rushed forward and seized that Bráhman to eat him, but he
invoked the protection of king Vikramáditya. And the moment the king
heard his cry, he rushed out like flame, and while still at a distance,
checked me by exclaiming "Ah villain! do not kill the Bráhman:"
and then he proceeded to cut off the head of a figure of a man he
had drawn; that did not sever my neck, but made it stream with blood.
Then I left the Bráhman and clung to the king's feet, and he spared
my life.
"Such is the power of that god, king Vikramáditya. And it is by his
orders that I have slain this hypocritical kápálika. So he is my proper
prey, to be devoured by me as being a Vetála; let him go, Yamasikha!"
Though Agnisikha made this appeal to Yamasikha, the latter proceeded
contumaciously to drag with his hand the corpse of that hypocritical
kápálika. Then king Vikramáditya appeared there, and drew the figure
of a man on the earth and then cut off its hand with his sword. That
made the hand of Yamasikha fall severed; so he left the corpse, and
fled in fear. And Agnisikha immediately devoured the corpse of that
kápálika. And I witnessed all this, securely protected by the might
of the king. [770]
"In these words did that wife of the Yaksha, Madanamanjarí by name,
describe your power, O king, and then she went on to say to me."
Then, Anangadeva, the king said to me in a gentle voice, "Yakshí, being
delivered from the kápálika, go to the house of your husband." Then
I bowed before him, and returned to this my own home, thinking how I
might repay to that king the benefit he had conferred on me. In this
way your master gave me life, family and husband; and when you tell
him this story of mine, it will agree with his own recollections.
Moreover, I have to-day found out that the king of Sinhala has sent
to that king his daughter, the greatest beauty in the three worlds,
who has of her own accord elected to marry him. And all the kings,
being jealous, have gathered themselves together and formed the
intention of killing Vikramasakti, and the dependent kings, [771]
and of carrying off that maiden. So, do you go, and make known that
their intention to Vikramasakti, in order that he may be on his guard
and ready to repel their attack. And I will exert myself to enable
king Vikramáditya to conquer those enemies and gain the victory.
"For this reason I brought you here by my own deluding power, in order
that you might tell all this to king Vikramasakti and the dependent
monarchs; and I will send to your sovereign such a present as shall to
a certain small extent be a requital for the benefit that he conferred
on me."
While she was saying this, the two maidens, that we had seen in the
sea, came there with the deer; one had a body white as the moon, the
other was dark as a priyangu; so they seemed like Gangá and Yamuná
returned from worshipping the ocean, the monarch of rivers. When they
had sat down, I put this question to the Yakshí, "Goddess, who are
these maidens, and what is the meaning of this golden deer?" When
the Yakshiní heard this, king, she said to me, "Anangadeva, if you
feel any curiosity about the matter, listen, I will tell you."
Story of Ghanta and Nighanta and the two maidens.
Long ago there came to impede Prajápati, in his creation of creatures,
two terrible Dánavas, named Ghanta and Nighanta, invincible even by
gods. And the Creator, being desirous of destroying them, created
these two maidens, the splendour of whose measureless beauty seemed
capable of maddening the world. And those two mighty Asuras, when they
saw these two exceedingly wonderful maidens, tried to carry them off;
and fighting with one another, they both of them met their death. [772]
Then Brahmá bestowed these maidens on Kuvera, saying, "You must give
these girls to some suitable husband;" and Kuvera made them over to my
husband, who is his younger brother; and in the same way my husband
passed these fair ones [773] on to me; and I have thought of king
Vikramáditya as a husband for them, for, as he is an incarnation of
a god, he is a fit person for them to marry.
"Such are the facts with regard to these maidens, now hear the history
of the deer."
Story of the golden deer.
Indra has a beloved son, named Jayanta. Once on a time, when he,
still an infant, was being carried about in the air by the celestial
nymphs, he saw some princes in a wood on earth playing with some young
deer. Then Jayanta [774] went to heaven, and cried in the presence of
his father because he had not got a deer to play with, as a child would
naturally do. Accordingly Indra had a deer made for him by Visvakarman
of gold and jewels, and life was given to the animal by sprinkling it
with nectar. Then Jayanta played with it, and was delighted with it,
and the young deer was continually roaming about in heaven.
In course of time that son of Rávana, who was rightly named Indrajit,
[775] carried off the young deer from heaven and took it to his
own city Lanká. And after a further period had elapsed, Rávana
and Indrajit having been slain by the heroes Ráma and Lakshmana,
to avenge the carrying off of Sítá, and Vibhíshana having been set
upon the throne of Lanká, as king of the Rákshasas, that wonderful
deer of gold and jewels remained in his palace. And once on a time,
when I was taken by my husband's relations to Vibhíshana's palace on
the occasion of a festival, he gave me the deer as a complimentary
present. And that young heaven-born deer is now in my house, and I
must bestow it on your master.
And while the Yakshiní was telling me this string of tales, the sun,
the friend of the kamaliní, went to rest. Then I and the ambassador
of the king of Sinhala went to sleep, both of us, after the evening
ceremonies, in a palace which the Yakshiní assigned to us.
In the morning we woke up and saw, my sovereign, that the army of
Vikramasakti, your vassal, had arrived. We reflected that that must
be a display of the Yakshiní's power, and quickly went wondering
into the presence of Vikramasakti. And he, as soon as he saw us,
showed us great honour, and asked after our welfare; and was on
the point of asking us what message the king of Sinhala had sent,
when the two heavenly maidens, whose history the Yakshiní had
related to us, and the young deer arrived there, escorted by the
army of the Yakshas. When king Vikramasakti saw this, he suspected
some glamour of malignant demons, and he said to me apprehensively
"What is the meaning of this?" Then I told him in due course the
commission of the king of Sinhala, and the circumstances connected
with the Yakshiní, the two maidens, and the deer. Moreover I informed
him of the hostile scheme of your majesty's enemies, which was to be
carried out by all the kings in combination, and which I had heard
of from the Yakshí. Then Vikramasakti honoured us two ambassadors,
and those two heavenly maidens; and being delighted made his army
ready for battle with the assistance of the other vassal kings.
And immediately, king, there was heard in the army the loud beating of
drums, and immediately there was seen the mighty host of hostile kings,
accompanied by the Mlechchhas. Then our army and the hostile army,
furious at beholding one another, closed with a rush, and the battle
began. Thereupon some of the Yakshas sent by the Yakshí entered our
soldiers, and so smote the army of the enemies, and others smote them
in open fight. [776] And there arose a terrible tempest of battle,
overspread with a cloud formed of the dust raised by the army, in
which sword-blades fell thick as rain, and the shouts of heroes
thundered. And the heads of our enemies flying up, as they were
cut off, and falling again, made it seem as if the Fortune of our
victory were playing at ball. And in a moment those kings that had
escaped the slaughter, their troops having been routed, submitted
and repaired for protection to the camp of your vassal.
Then, lord of earth, as you had conquered the four cardinal points
and the dvípas, and had destroyed all the Mlechchhas, that Yakshiní
appeared, accompanied by her husband, and said to king Vikramasakti
and to me, "You must tell your master that what I have done has been
done merely by way of service to him, and you must also request him,
as from me, to marry these two god-framed maidens, and to look upon
them with favour, and to cherish this deer also, for it is a present
from me." When the Yakshí had said this, she bestowed a heap of jewels,
and disappeared with her husband, and her attendants. The next day,
Madanalekhá, the daughter of the king of Sinhala, came with a great
retinue and much magnificence. And then Vikramasakti went to meet
her, and bending low, joyfully conducted her into his camp. And
on the second day Vikramasakti, having accomplished his object,
set out with the other kings from that place, in order to come here
and behold your Majesty's feet, bringing with him that princess and
the two heavenly maidens, and that deer composed of gold and jewels,
a marvel for the eyes of the three worlds. And now, sovereign, that
vassal prince has arrived near this city, and has sent us two on in
front to inform Your Highness. So let the king, out of regard for
the lord of Sinhala and the Yakshí, go forth to meet those maidens
and the deer, and also the subject kings.
When Anangadeva had said this to king Vikramáditya, though the king
recollected accomplishing that difficult rescue of the Yakshiní, he
did not consider it worth a straw, when he heard of the return she had
made for it; great-souled men, even when they have done much, think it
worth very little. And, being much pleased, he loaded [777] Anangadeva
for the second time, with elephants, horses, villages, and jewels,
and bestowed similar gifts on the ambassador of the king of Sinhala.
And after he had spent that day, the king set out from Ujjayiní, with
his warriors mounted on elephants and horses, to meet that daughter
of the king of Sinhala, and those two maidens created by Brahmá. And
the following speeches of the military officers, assigning elephants
and horses, were heard in the neighbourhood of the city when the
kings started, and within the city itself when the sovereign started;
"Jayavardhana must take the good elephant Anangagiri, and Ranabhata