The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
named Brahmadatta is always your enemy, therefore conquer him first;
when he is conquered, conquer the eastern quarter, and gradually all
the quarters, and exalt the glory of the race of Pándu gleaming white
like a lotus." When his chief minister said this to him, the king
of Vatsa consented, eager for conquest, and ordered his subjects to
prepare for the expedition; and he gave the sovereignty of the country
of Videha to his brother-in-law Gopálaka, by way of reward for his
assistance, thereby shewing his knowledge of policy; and he gave
to Sinhavarman the brother of Padmávatí, who came to his assistance
with his forces, the land of Chedi, treating him with great respect;
and the monarch summoned Pulindaka the friendly king of the Bhillas,
[279] who filled the quarters with his hordes, as the rainy season
fills them with clouds; and while the preparation for the expedition
was going on in the great king's territories, a strange anxiety was
produced in the heart of his enemies; but Yaugandharáyana first sent
spies to Benares to find out the proceedings of king Brahmadatta; then
on an auspicious day, being cheered with omens portending victory,
the king of Vatsa first marched against Brahmadatta in the Eastern
quarter, having mounted [280] a tall victorious elephant, with a
lofty umbrella on its back, as a furious lion ascends a mountain
with one tree in full bloom on it. And his expedition was facilitated
[281] by the autumn which arrived as a harbinger of good fortune, and
shewed him an easy path, across rivers flowing with diminished volume,
and he filled the face of the land with his shouting forces, so as to
produce the appearance of a sudden rainy season without clouds; and
then the cardinal points resounding with the echoes of the roaring of
his host, seemed to be telling one another their fears of his coming,
and his horses, collecting the brightness of the sun on their golden
trappings, moved along followed, as it were, by the fire pleased with
the purification of his army. [282]
And his elephants with their ears like white chowries, and with
streams of ichor flowing from their temples reddened by being mixed
with vermilion, appeared, as he marched along, like the sons of the
mountains, streaked with white clouds of autumn, and pouring down
streams of water coloured with red mineral, sent by the parent hills,
in their fear, to join his expedition. And the dust from the earth
concealed the brightness of the sun, as if thinking that the king
could not endure the effulgent splendour of rivals. And the two queens
followed the king step by step on the way, like the goddess of Fame,
and the Fortune of Victory, attracted by his politic virtues. [283]
The silk of his host's banners, tossed to and fro in the wind,
seemed to say to his enemies,--"Bend in submission, or flee." Thus
he marched, beholding the districts full of blown white lotuses,
like the uplifted hoods of the serpent Sesha [284] terrified with
fear of the destruction of the world. In the meanwhile those spies,
commissioned by Yaugandharáyana, assuming the vows of scull-bearing
worshippers of Siva, reached the city of Benares. And one of them,
who was acquainted with the art of juggling, exhibiting his skill,
assumed the part of teacher, and the others passed themselves
off as his pupils. And they celebrated that pretended teacher, who
subsisted on alms, from place to place, saying, "This master of ours
is acquainted with past, present, and future." Whatever that sage
predicted, in the way of fires and so on, to those who came to consult
him about the future, his pupils took care to bring about secretly;
so he became famous. He gained complete ascendancy over the mind of
a certain Rájpút courtier there, a favourite of the king's, who was
won over by this mean skill of the teacher's. And when the war with
the king of Vatsa came on, the king Brahmadatta began to consult
him by the agency of the Rájpút, so that he learnt the secrets of
the government. Then the minister of Brahmadatta, Yogakarandaka,
laid snares in the path of the king of Vatsa as he advanced. He
tainted, by means of poison and other deleterious substances, the
trees, flowering creepers, water and grass all along the line of
march. And he sent poison-damsels [285] as dancing girls among the
enemy's host, and he also despatched nocturnal assassins into their
midst. But that spy, who had assumed the character of a prophet,
found all this out, and then quickly informed Yaugandharáyana of
it by means of his companions. Yaugandharáyana for his part, when
he found it out, purified at every step along the line of march the
poisoned grass, water, and so on, by means of corrective antidotes,
and forbade in the camp the society of strange women, and with the
help of Rumanvat he captured and put to death those assassins. When he
heard of that, Brahmadatta having found all his stratagems fail, came
to the conclusion that the king of Vatsa, who filled with his forces
the whole country, was hard to overcome. After deliberating and sending
an ambassador, he came in person to the king of Vatsa who was encamped
near, placing his clasped hands upon his head in token of submission.
The king of Vatsa for his part, when the king of Benares came to
him, bringing a present, received him with respect and kindness,
for heroes love submission. He being thus subdued, that mighty king
went on pacifying the East, making the yielding bend, but extirpating
the obstinate, as the wind treats the trees, until he reached the
Eastern ocean, rolling with quivering waves, as it were, trembling with
terror on account of the Ganges having been conquered. On its extreme
shore he set up a pillar of victory, [286] looking like the king
of the serpents emerging from the world below to crave immunity for
Pátála. Then the people of Kalinga [287] submitted and paid tribute,
and acted as the king's guides, so that the renown of that renowned
one ascended the mountain of Mahendra. Having conquered a forest
of kings by means of his elephants, which seemed like the peaks
of the Vindhya come to him terrified at the conquest of Mahendra,
he went to the southern quarter. There he made his enemies cease
their threatening murmurs and take to the mountains, strengthless
[288] and pale, treating them as the season of autumn treats the
clouds. The Káverí being crossed by him in his victorious onset,
and the glory of the king of the Chola [289] race being surpassed,
were befouled at the same time. He no longer allowed the Muralas
[290] to exalt their heads, for they were completely beaten down by
tributes imposed on them. Though his elephants drank the waters of
the Godávarí divided into seven streams, they seemed to discharge
them again seven-fold in the form of ichor. Then the king crossed
the Revá and reached Ujjayiní, and entered the city, being made by
king Chandamahásena to precede him. And there he became the target of
the amorous sidelong glances of the ladies of Málava, who shine with
twofold beauty by loosening their braided hair and wearing garlands,
and he remained there in great comfort, hospitably entertained by his
father-in-law, so that he even forgot the long-regretted enjoyments
of his native land. And Vásavadattá was continually at her parents'
side, remembering her childhood, seeming despondent even in her
happiness. The king Chandamahásena was as much delighted at meeting
Padmávatí, as he was at meeting again his own daughter. But after he
had rested some days, the delighted king of Vatsa, reinforced by the
troops of his father-in-law, marched towards the western region; his
curved sword [291] was surely the smoke of the fire of his valour,
since it dimmed with gushing tears the eyes of the women of Láta;
the mountain of Mandara, when its woods were broken through by his
elephants, seemed to tremble lest he should root it up to churn the
sea. [292] Surely he was a splendid luminary excelling the sun and
other orbs, since in his victorious career he enjoyed a glorious rising
even in the western quarter. Then he went to Alaká, distinguished by
the presence of Kuvera, displaying its beauties before him, that is
to say, to the quarter made lovely by the smile of Kailása, and having
subdued the king of Sindh, at the head of his cavalry he destroyed the
Mlechchhas as Ráma destroyed the Rákshasas at the head of the army of
monkeys; the cavalry squadrons of the Turushkas [293] were broken on
the masses of his elephants, as the waves of the agitated sea on the
woods that line the sea-shore. The august hero received the tribute of
his foes, and cut off the head of the wicked king of the Párasíkas
[294] as Vishnu did that of Ráhu. [295] His glory, after he had
inflicted a defeat on the Húnas [296], made the four quarters resound,
and poured down the Himálaya like a second Ganges. When the hosts
of the monarch, whose enemies were still from fear, were shouting,
a hostile answer was heard only in the hollows of the rocks. It is
not strange that then the king of Kámarúpa, [297] bending before
him with head deprived of the umbrella, was without shade and also
without brightness. Then that sovereign returned, followed by elephants
presented by the king of Kámarúpa, resembling moving rocks made over
to him by the mountains by way of tribute. Having thus conquered
the earth, the king of Vatsa with his attendants reached the city of
the king of Magadha the father of Padmávatí. But the king of Magadha,
when he arrived with the queens, was as joyous as the god of love when
the moon illuminates the night. Vásavadattá, who had lived with him
before without being recognised, was now made known to him, and he
considered her deserving of the highest regard.
Then that victorious king of Vatsa, having been honoured by the king
of Magadha with his whole city, followed by the minds of all the people
which pursued him out of affection, having swallowed the surface of the
earth with his mighty army, returned to Lávánaka in his own dominions.
CHAPTER XX.
Then the king of Vatsa, while encamped in Lávánaka to rest his army,
said in secret to Yaugandharáyana, "Through your sagacity I have
conquered all the kings upon the earth, and they being won over
by politic devices will not conspire against me. But this king of
Benares, Brahmadatta, is an ill-conditioned fellow, and he alone,
I think, will plot against me; what confidence can be reposed in the
wicked-minded?" Then Yaugandharáyana, being spoken to in this strain
by the king, answered, "O king, Brahmadatta will not plot against
you again, for when he was conquered and submitted, you shewed him
great consideration; and what sensible man will injure one who treats
him well? Whoever does, will find that it turns out unfortunately
for himself, and on this point, listen to what I am going to say;
I will tell you a tale."
Story of Phalabhúti.
There was once on a time in the land of Padma an excellent Bráhman
of high renown, named Agnidatta, who lived on a grant of land given
by the king. He had born to him two sons, the elder named Somadatta,
and the second Vaisvánaradatta. The elder of them was of fine person,
but ignorant, and ill-conducted, but the second was sagacious,
well-conducted, and fond of study. And those two after they were
married, and their father had died, divided that royal grant and
the rest of his possessions between them, each taking half; and the
younger of the two was honoured by the king, but the elder Somadatta,
who was of unsteady character, remained a husbandman. One day a
Bráhman, who had been a friend of his father's, seeing him engaged
in conversation with some Súdras, thus addressed him, "Though you
are the son of Agnidatta, you behave like a Súdra, you blockhead,
and you are not ashamed, though you see your own brother in favour