The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
the princess Kanakarekhá, whom you love, must surely be a heavenly
being, otherwise being a mere child how could she desire a husband
that has seen the Golden City?" Having heard in secret this long and
interesting story from Vishnudatta, Saktideva desiring in his heart to
behold the Golden City, and supporting himself with resolute patience,
managed to get through the night.
CHAPTER XXVI.
The next morning, while Saktideva was dwelling in the monastery in
the island of Utsthala, Satyavrata, the king of the fishermen, came to
him, and said to him in accordance with the promise which he had made
before, "Bráhman, I have thought of a device for accomplishing your
wish; there is a fair isle in the middle of the sea named Ratnakúta,
and in it there is a temple of the adorable Vishnu founded by the
Ocean, and on the twelfth day of the white fortnight of Áshádha there
is a festival there with a procession, and people come there diligently
from all the islands to offer worship. It is possible that some one
there might know about the Golden City, so come let us go there,
for that day is near." When Satyavrata made this proposal, Saktideva
consented gladly, and took with him the provisions for the journey
furnished by Vishnudatta. Then he went on board the ship brought by
Satyavrata, and quickly set out with him on the ocean-path, and as
he was going with Satyavrata on the home of marvels [412] in which
the monsters resembled islands, he asked the king, who was steering
the ship, "What is this enormous object which is seen in the sea far
off in this direction, looking like a huge mountain equipped with
wings rising at will out of the sea?" Then Satyavrata said: "Bráhman,
this is a banyan-tree, [413] underneath it they say that there is
a gigantic whirlpool, the mouth of the submarine fire. And we must
take care in passing this way to avoid that spot, for those who once
enter that whirlpool never return again." While Satyavrata was thus
speaking, the ship began to be carried in that very direction by the
force of the wind; [414] when Satyavrata saw this, he again said to
Saktideva: "Bráhman, it is clear that the time of our destruction
has now arrived, for see, this ship suddenly drifts [415] in that
direction. And now I cannot anyhow prevent it, so we are certain
to be cast into that deep whirlpool, as into the mouth of death,
by the sea which draws us on as if it were mighty fate, the result
of our deeds. And it grieves me not for myself, for whose body is
continuing? But it grieves me to think that your desire has not been
accomplished in spite of all your toils, so while I keep back this
ship for a moment, quickly climb on to the boughs of this banyan-tree,
perhaps some expedient may present itself for saving the life of one
of such noble form, for who can calculate the caprices of fate or
the waves of the sea?" While the heroic Satyavrata was saying this,
the ship drew near the tree; at that moment Saktideva made a leap
in his terror, and caught a broad branch of that marine banyan-tree,
[416] but Satyavrata's body and ship, which he offered for another,
were swept down into the whirlpool, and he entered the mouth of the
submarine fire. But Saktideva, though he had escaped to the bough of
that tree, which filled the regions with its branches, was full of
despair and reflected--"I have not beheld that Golden City, and I am
perishing in an uninhabited place, moreover I have also brought about
the death of that king of the fishermen. Or rather who can resist the
awful goddess of Destiny, that ever places her foot upon the heads of
all men?" [417] While the Bráhman youth was thus revolving thoughts
suited to the occasion on the trunk of the tree, the day came to an
end. And in the evening he saw many enormous birds, of the nature of
vultures, coming into that banyan-tree from all quarters, filling the
sides of heaven with their cries, and the waves of the sea, that was
lashed by the wind of their broad wings, appeared as if running to
meet them out of affection produced by long acquaintance.
Then he, concealed by the dense leaves, overheard the conversation of
those birds perched on the branches, which was carried on in human
language. One described some distant island, another a mountain,
another a distant region as the place where he had gone to roam
during the day, but an old bird among them said, "I went to-day to
the Golden City to disport myself, and to-morrow morning I shall go
there again to feed at my ease, for what is the use of my taking a
long and fatiguing journey?" Saktideva's sorrow was removed by that
speech of the bird's, which resembled a sudden shower of nectar, and
he thought to himself, "Bravo! that city does exist, and now I have an
instrument for reaching it, this gigantic bird given me as a means of
conveyance." Thinking thus, Saktideva slowly advanced and hid himself
among the back-feathers of that bird while it was asleep, and next
morning, when the other birds went off in different directions, that
vulture exhibiting a strange partiality to the Bráhman like destiny,
[418] carrying Saktideva unseen on his back where he had climbed up,
went immediately to the Golden City to feed again. [419] Then the bird
alighted in a garden, and Saktideva got down from its back unobserved
and left it, but while he was roaming about there, he saw two women
engaged in gathering flowers; he approached them slowly, who were
astonished at his appearance, and he asked them, "What place is this,
good ladies, and who are you?" And they said to him: "Friend, this
is a city called the Golden City, a seat of the Vidyádharas, and in
it there dwells a Vidyádharí, named Chandraprabhá, and know that we
are the gardeners in her garden, and we are gathering these flowers
for her." Then the Bráhman said; "Obtain for me an interview with
your mistress here." When they heard this, they consented, and the
two women conducted the young man to the palace in their city. When
he reached it, he saw that it was glittering with pillars of precious
stones, and had walls of gold, [420] as it were the very rendezvous of
prosperity. And all the attendants, when they saw him arrived there,
went and told Chandraprabhá the marvellous tidings of the arrival of
a mortal; then she gave a command to the warder, and immediately had
the Bráhman brought into the palace and conducted into her presence;
when he entered, he beheld her there giving a feast to his eyes,
like the Creator's ability to create marvels, represented in bodily
form. And she rose from her jewelled couch, while he was still far off,
and honoured him with a welcome herself, overpowered by beholding
him. And when he had taken a seat, she asked him, "Auspicious sir,
who are you, that have come here in such guise, and how did you
reach this land inaccessible to men?" When Chandraprabhá in her
curiosity asked him this question, Saktideva told her his country
and his birth and his name, and he related to her how he had come in
order to obtain the princess Kanakarekhá as the reward of beholding
the Golden City. When Chandraprabhá heard that, she thought a little
and heaved a deep sigh, and said to Saktideva in private; "Listen,
I am now about to tell you something, fortunate sir. There is in this
land a king of the Vidyádharas named Sasikhanda, and we four daughters
were born to him in due course; I am the eldest Chandraprabhá, and
the next is Chandrarekhá, and the third is Sasirekhá and the fourth
Sasiprabhá. We gradually grew up to womanhood in our father's house,
and once upon a time those three sisters of mine went together to the
shore of the Ganges to bathe, while I was detained at home by illness;
then they began to play in the water, and in the insolence of youth
they sprinkled with water a hermit named Agryatapas, while he was
in the stream. That hermit in his wrath cursed those girls, who had
carried their merriment too far, saying:--"You wicked maidens, be born
all of you in the world of mortals." When our father heard that, he
went and pacified the great hermit, and the hermit told how the curse
of each of them severally should end, and appointed to each of them
in her mortal condition the power of remembering her former existence,
supplemented with divine insight. Then, they having left their bodies
and gone to the world of men, my father bestowed on me this city,
and in his grief went to the forest, but while I was dwelling here,
the goddess Durgá informed me in a dream that a mortal should become my
husband. For this reason, though my father has recommended to me many
Vidyádhara suitors, I have rejected them all and remained unmarried
up to this day. But now I am subdued by your wonderful arrival and
by your handsome form, and I give myself to you; so I will go on
the approaching fourteenth day of the lunar fortnight to the great
mountain called Rishabha to entreat my father for your sake, for
all the most excellent Vidyádharas assemble there from all quarters
on that day to worship the god Siva, and my father comes there too,
and after I have obtained his permission, I will return here quickly;
then marry me. Now rise up."
Having said this, Chandraprabhá supplied Saktideva with various kinds
of luxuries suited to Vidyádharas, and while he remained there,
he was as much refreshed, as one heated by a forest conflagration
would be by bathing in a lake of nectar. And when the fourteenth day
had arrived, Chandraprabhá said to him: "To-day I go to entreat my
father's permission to marry you, and all my attendants will go with
me. But you must not be grieved at being left alone for two days,
moreover, while you remain alone in this palace, you must by no means
ascend the middle terrace." When Chandraprabhá had said this to that
young Bráhman, she set out on her journey leaving her heart with him,
and escorted on her way by his. And Saktideva, remaining there alone,
wandered from one magnificent part of the palace to another, to delight
his mind; and then he felt a curiosity to know why that daughter of the
Vidyádhara had forbidden him to ascend the roof of the palace, and so
he ascended that middle terrace of the palace, for men are generally
inclined to do that which is forbidden: and when he had ascended it, he
saw three concealed pavilions, and he entered one of them, the door of
which was open, and when he had entered it he saw a certain woman lying
on a magnificently jewelled sofa, on which there was a mattress placed,
whose body was hidden by a sheet. But when he lifted up the sheet and
looked, he beheld lying dead in that guise that beautiful maiden, the
daughter of king Paropakárin; and when he saw her there, he thought,
"What is this great wonder? Is she sleeping a sleep from which there
is no awaking, or is it a complete delusion on my part? That woman,
for whose sake I have travelled to this foreign land, is lying here
without breath, though she is alive in my own country, and she still
retains her beauty unimpaired, so I may be certain that this is all
a magic show, which the Creator for some reason or other exhibits
to beguile me." Thinking thus, he proceeded to enter in succession
those other two pavilions, and he beheld within them in the same
way two other maidens; then he went in his astonishment out of the
palace, and sitting down he remained looking at a very beautiful
lake below it, and on its bank he beheld a horse with a jewelled
saddle; so he descended immediately from where he was, and out of
curiosity approached its side; and seeing that it had no rider on it,
he tried to mount it, and that horse struck him with its heel and
flung him into the lake. And after he had sunk beneath the surface
of the lake, he quickly rose up to his astonishment from the middle
of a garden-lake in his own city of Vardhamána; and he saw himself