The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
suddenly standing in the water of a lake in his own native city, like
the kumuda plants, miserable without the light of the moon. [421] He
reflected "How different is this city of Vardhamána from that city
of the Vidyádharas! Alas! what is this great display of marvellous
delusion? Alas! I, ill-fated wretch, am wonderfully deceived by some
strange power; or rather, who on this earth knows what is the nature
of destiny?" Thus reflecting Saktideva rose from the midst of the lake,
and went in a state of wonder to his own father's house. There he made
a false representation, giving as an excuse for his absence that he
had been himself going about with a drum, and being gladly welcomed
by his father he remained with his delighted relations; and on the
second day he went outside his house, and heard again these words
being proclaimed in the city by beat of drum,--"Let whoever, being
a Bráhman or a Kshatriya, has really seen the Golden City, say so:
the king will give him his daughter, and make him crown-prince." Then
Saktideva hearing that, having successfully accomplished the task,
again went and said to those who were proclaiming this by beat of
drum,--"I have seen that city." And they took him before that king, and
the king recognising him, supposed that he was again saying what was
untrue, as he had done before. But he said--"If I say what is false,
and if I have not really seen that city, I desire now to be punished
with death; let the princess herself examine me." When he said this,
the king went and had his daughter summoned by his servants. She,
when she saw that Bráhman, whom she had seen before, again said to
the king; "My father, he will tell us some falsehood again." Then
Saktideva said to her,--"Princess, whether I speak truly or falsely,
be pleased to explain this point which excites my curiosity. How is
it that I saw you lying dead on a sofa in the golden city, and yet
see you here alive?" When the princess Kanakarekhá had been asked
this question by Saktideva, and furnished with this token of his
truth, she said in the presence of her father: "It is true that this
great-hearted one has seen that city, and in a short time he will be
my husband, when I return to dwell there. And there he will marry
my other three sisters; and he will govern as king the Vidyádharas
in that city. But I must to-day enter my own body and that city, for
I have been born here in your house owing to the curse of a hermit,
who moreover appointed that my curse should end in the following way,
'When you shall be wearing a human form, and a man, having beheld your
body in the Golden City, shall reveal the truth, then you shall be
freed from your curse, and that man shall become your husband.' And
though I am in a human body I remember my origin, and I possess
supernatural knowledge, so I will now depart to my own Vidyádhara
home, to a happy fortune." Saying this the princess left her body,
and vanished, and a confused cry arose in the palace. And Saktideva,
who had now lost both the maidens, thinking over the two beloved ones
whom he had gained by various difficult toils, and who yet were not
gained, and not only grieved but blaming himself, with his desires not
accomplished, left the king's palace and in a moment went through the
following train of thought: "Kanakarekhá said that I should attain
my desire; so why do I despond, for success depends upon courage? I
will again go to the Golden City by the same path, and destiny will
without doubt again provide me with a means of getting there." Thus
reflecting Saktideva set out from that city, for resolute men who
have once undertaken a project do not turn back without accomplishing
their object. And journeying on, he again reached after a long time
that city named Vitankapura, situated on the shore of the sea. And
there he saw the merchant coming to meet him, with whom he originally
went to sea, and whose ship was wrecked there. He thought, "Can this
be Samudradatta, and how can he have escaped after falling into the
sea? But how can it be otherwise? I myself am a strange illustration
of its possibility." While he approached the merchant thinking thus,
the merchant recognised him, and embraced him in his delight, and he
took him to his own house and after entertaining him, asked him--"When
the ship foundered, how did you escape from the sea?" Saktideva then
told him his whole history, how, after being swallowed by a fish,
he first reached the island of Utsthala, and then he asked the good
merchant in his turn: "Tell me also how you escaped from the sea." Then
the merchant said, "After I fell into the sea that time, I remained
floating for three days supported on a plank. Then a ship suddenly came
that way, and I, crying out, was descried by those in her, and taken on
board her. And when I got on board, I saw my own father who had gone
to a distant island long before, and was now returning after a long
absence. My father, when he saw me, recognised me, and embracing me
asked my story with tears, and I told it him as follows--'My father,
you had been away for a long time and had not returned, and so I set
about trading myself, thinking it was my proper employment; then on
my way to a distant island my ship was wrecked, and I was plunged
in the sea, and you have found me and rescued me.' When I had said
this to him, my father asked me reproachfully--'Why do you run such
risks? For I possess wealth, my son, and I am engaged in acquiring
it, see, I have brought you back this ship full of gold.' Thus spoke
my father to me, and comforting me took me home in that very ship
to my own dwelling in Vitankapura." When Saktideva had heard this
account from the merchant, and had rested that night, he said to him
on the next day--"Great merchant, I must once more go to the island
of Utsthala, so tell me how I can get there now." The merchant said
to him--"Some agents of mine are preparing to go there to-day, so
go on board the ship, and set out with them." Thereupon the Bráhman
set out with the merchant's agents to go to that island of Utsthala,
and by chance the sons of the king of the fishermen saw him there,
and when they were near him, they recognised him and said,--"Bráhman,
you went with our father to search here and there for the Golden
City, and how is it that you have come back here to-day alone?" Then
Saktideva said, "Your father, when out at sea, fell into the mouth
of the submarine fire, his ship having been dragged down by the
current." When those sons of the fisher-king heard that, they were
angry and said to their servants--"Bind this wicked man, for he has
murdered our father. Otherwise how could it have happened that, when
two men were in the same ship, one should have fallen into the mouth
of the submarine fire, and the other escaped it. So we must to-morrow
morning sacrifice our father's murderer in front of the goddess Durgá,
treating him as a victim." Having said this to their servants, those
sons of the fisher-king bound Saktideva, and took him off to the awful
temple of Durgá, the belly of which was enlarged, as if it continually
swallowed many lives, and which was like the mouth of death devouring
tamála with projecting teeth. There Saktideva remained bound during
the night in fear for his life, and he thus prayed to the goddess
Durgá,--"Adorable one, granter of boons, thou didst deliver the world
with thy form which was like the orb of the rising sun, appearing as
if it had drunk its fill of the blood gushing freely from the throat
of the giant Ruru; [422] therefore deliver me, thy constant votary,
who have come a long distance out of desire to obtain my beloved,
but am now fallen without cause into the power of my enemies." Thus
he prayed to the goddess, and with difficulty went off to sleep,
and in the night he saw a woman come out of the inner cell of the
temple; that woman of heavenly beauty came up to him, and said with a
compassionate manner, "Do not fear, Saktideva, no harm shall happen
to you. The sons of that fisher-king have a sister named Vindumatí,
that maiden shall see you in the morning and claim you for a husband,
and you must agree to that, she will bring about your deliverance:
and she is not of the fisher-caste: for she is a celestial female
degraded in consequence of a curse." When he heard this, he woke up,
and in the morning that fisher-maiden came to the temple, a shower of
nectar to his eyes. And announcing herself, she came up to him and
said in her eagerness, "I will have you released from this prison,
therefore do what I desire. For I have refused all these suitors
approved of by my brothers, but the moment I saw you, love arose in
my soul, therefore marry me." When Vindumatí, the daughter of the
fisher-king, said this to him, Saktideva remembering his dream,
accepted her proposal gladly; she procured his release, and he
married that fair one, whose wish was gratified by her brothers
receiving the command to do so from Durgá in a dream. And he lived
there with that heavenly creature that had assumed a human form,
obtained solely by his merits in a former life, as if with happy
success. And one day, as he was standing upon the roof of his palace,
he saw a Chandála coming along with a load of cow's flesh, and he
said to his beloved--"Look, slender one! how can this evildoer eat
the flesh of cows, those animals that are the object of veneration to
the three worlds?" Then Vindumatí, hearing that, said to her husband;
"The wickedness of this act is inconceivable, what can we say in
palliation of it. I have been born in this race of fishermen for a
very small offence owing to the might of cows, but what can atone for
this man's sin?" When she said this, Saktideva said to her;--"That
is wonderful: tell me, my beloved, who you are, and how you came
to be born in a family of fishermen." When he asked this with much
importunity, she said to him, "I will tell you, though it is a secret,
if you promise to do what I ask you." He affirmed with an oath;
"Yes, I will do what you ask me."
She then told him first what she desired him to do; "In this island you
will soon marry another wife, and she, my husband, will soon became
pregnant, and in the eighth month of her pregnancy you must cut her
open and take out the child, and you must feel no compunction about
it." Thus she said, and he was astonished, exclaiming, "What can this
mean?" and he was full of horror, but that daughter of the fisher-king
went on to say, "This request of mine you must perform for a certain
reason; now hear who I am, and how I came to be born in a family of
fishermen. Long ago in a former birth I was a certain Vidyádharí, and
now I have fallen into the world of men in consequence of a curse. For
when I was a Vidyádharí, I bit asunder some strings with my teeth
and fastened them to lyres, and it is owing to that that I have been
born here in the house of a fisherman. So, if such a degradation is
brought about by touching the mouth with the dry sinew of a cow, much
more terrible must be the result of eating cow's flesh!" While she was
saying this, one of her brothers rushed in in a state of perturbation,
and said to Saktideva, "Rise up, an enormous boar has appeared from
somewhere or other, and after slaying innumerable persons is coming
this way in its pride, towards us." When Saktideva heard that, he
descended from his palace, and mounting a horse, spear in hand,
[423] he galloped to meet the boar, and struck it the moment he
saw it, but when the hero attacked him the boar fled, and managed,
though wounded, to enter a cavern: and Saktideva entered there in
pursuit of him, and immediately beheld a great garden-shrubbery with
a house. And when he was there, he beheld a maiden of very wonderful
beauty, coming in a state of agitation to meet him, as if it were