The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
secretly Bandhudattá, whose eagerness made her disregard shame. And
no sooner was she brought, than she threw her arms round my neck,
for excessive love in women is your only hero for daring. Thus every
day Bandhudattá came at will from her father's house, and sported
with me in the house of her female friend.
Now one day the great merchant, her husband, came from Mathurá to
take her back to his own house, as she had been long absent. Then
Bandhudattá, as her father ordered her to go, and her husband was eager
to take her away, secretly made a second request to her friend. She
said "I am certainly going to be taken by my husband to the city of
Mathurá, and I cannot live there separated from Somasvámin. So tell
me what resource there is left to me in this matter." When she said
this, her friend Sukhasayá, who was a witch, answered her, "I know two
spells; [552] by reciting one of them a man can be in a moment made
an ape, if a string is fastened round his neck, and by the second,
if the string is loosed, he will immediately become a man again;
and while he is an ape his intelligence is not diminished. So if you
like, fair one, you can keep your lover Somasvámin; for I will turn
him into an ape on the spot, then take him with you to Mathurá as a
pet animal. And I will shew you how to use the two spells, so that
you can turn him, when near you, into the shape of a monkey, and when
you are in a secret place, make him once more a beloved man." When
her friend had told her this, Bandhudattá consented, and sending
for me in secret, told me that matter in the most loving tone. I
consented, and immediately Sukhasayá fastened a thread on my neck
and recited the spell, and made me a young monkey. And in that shape
Bandhudattá brought and shewed me to her husband, and she said--"A
friend of mine gave me this animal to play with." And he was delighted
when he saw me in her arms as a plaything, and I, though a monkey,
retained my intelligence, and the power of articulate speech. And I
remained there, saying to myself with inward laughter--"Wonderful are
the actions of women." For whom does not love beguile? The next day
Bandhudattá, having been taught that spell by her friend, set out from
her father's house to go to Mathurá with her husband. And the husband
of Bandhudattá, wishing to please her, had me carried on the back of
one of his servants during the journey. So the servant and I and the
rest went along, and in two or three days reached a wood, that lay
in our way, which was perilous from abounding in monkeys. Then the
monkeys, beholding me, attacked me in troops on all sides, quickly
calling to one another with shrill cries. And the irrepressible apes
came and began to bite that merchant's servant, on whose back I was
sitting. He was terrified at that, and flung me off his back on to
the ground, and fled for fear, so the monkeys got hold of me then
and there. And Bandhudattá, out of love for me, and her husband and
his servants, attacked the apes with stones and sticks, but were not
able to get the better of them. Then those monkeys, as if enraged
with my evil actions, pulled off with their teeth and nails every
hair from every one of my limbs, as I lay there bewildered. At last,
by the virtue of the string on my neck, and by thinking on Siva, I
managed to recover my strength, and getting loose from them, I ran
away. And entering into the depths of the wood, I got out of their
sight, and gradually, roaming from forest to forest, I reached this
wood. And while I was wandering about here in the rainy season, blind
with the darkness of grief, saying to myself, "How is it that even in
this life adultery has produced for thee the fruit of transformation
into the shape of a monkey, and thou hast lost Bandhudattá?" Destiny,
not yet sated with tormenting me, inflicted on me another woe, for a
female elephant suddenly came upon me, and seizing me with her trunk
flung me into the mud of an ant-hill that had been saturated with
rain. I know it must have been some divinity instigated by Destiny,
for, though I exerted myself to the utmost, I could not get out of
that mud. And while it was drying up, [553] not only did I not die,
but knowledge was produced in me, while I thought continually upon
Siva. And all the while I never felt hunger nor thirst, my friend,
until to-day you drew me out of this trap of dry mud. And though I have
gained knowledge, I do not even now possess power sufficient to set
myself free from this monkey nature. But when some witch unties the
thread on my neck, reciting at the same time the appropriate spell,
then I shall once more become a man.
"This is my story, but tell me now, my friend, how you came to this
inaccessible wood, and why." When Nischayadatta was thus requested
by the Bráhman Somasvámin, he told him his story, how he came from
Ujjayiní on account of a Vidyádharí, and how he was conveyed at night
by a Yakshiní, whom he had subdued by his presence of mind. Then the
wise Somasvámin, who wore the form of a monkey, having heard that
wonderful story, went on to say; "You, like myself, have suffered
great woe for the sake of a female. But females, like prosperous
circumstances, are never faithful to any one in this world. Like the
evening, they display a short-lived glow of passion, their hearts
are crooked like the channels of rivers, like snakes they are not to
be relied on, like lightning they are fickle. So, that Anurágapará,
though she may be enamoured of you for a time, when she finds a
paramour of her own race, will be disgusted with you, who are only
a mortal. So desist now from this effort for the sake of a female,
which you will find like the fruit of the Colocynth, bitter in its
after-taste. Do not go, my friend, to Pushkarávatí, the city of the
Vidyádharas, but ascend the back of the Yakshiní and return to your
own Ujjayiní. Do what I tell you, my friend; formerly in my passion I
did not heed the voice of a friend, and I am suffering for it at this
very moment. For when I was in love with Bandhudattá, a Bráhman named
Bhavasarman, who was a very dear friend of mine, said this to me in
order to dissuade me;--'Do not put yourself in the power of a female,
the heart of a female is a tangled maze; in proof of it I will tell
you what happened to me--listen!'"
Story of Bhavasarman.
In this very country, in the city of Váránasí, there lived a young and
beautiful Bráhman woman named Somadá, who was unchaste and secretly a
witch. And as destiny would have it, I had secret interviews with her,
and in the course of our intimacy my love for her increased. One day
I wilfully struck her in the fury of jealousy, and the cruel woman
bore it patiently, concealing her anger for the time. The next day
she fastened a string round my neck, as if in loving sport, and I was
immediately turned into a domesticated ox. Then I, thus transformed
into an ox, was sold by her, on receiving the required price, to a
man who lived by keeping domesticated camels. When he placed a load
upon me, a witch there, named Bandhamochaniká, beholding me sore
burdened, was filled with pity. [554] She knew by her supernatural
knowledge that I had been made an animal by Somadá, and when my
proprietor was not looking, she loosed the string from my neck. So I
returned to the form of a man, and that master of mine immediately
looked round, and thinking that I had escaped, wandered all about
the country in search of me. And as I was going away from that place
with Bandhamochiní, it happened that Somadá came that way and beheld
me at a distance. She, burning with rage, said to Bandhamochiní, who
possessed supernatural knowledge,--"Why did you deliver this villain
from his bestial transformation? Curses on you! wicked woman, you shall
reap the fruit of this evil deed. To-morrow morning I will slay you,
together with this villain." When she had gone after saying this,
that skilful sorceress Bandhamochiní, in order to repel her assault,
gave me the following instructions--"She will come to-morrow morning
in the form of a black mare to slay me, and I shall then assume the
form of a bay mare. And when we have begun to fight, you must come
behind this Somadá, sword in hand, and resolutely strike her. In this
way we will slay her; so come to-morrow morning to my house." After
saying this, she pointed out to me her house. When she had entered
it, I went home, having endured more than one birth in this very
life. And in the morning I went to the house of Bandhamochiní, sword
in hand. Then Somadá came there, in the form of a black mare. [555]
And Bandhamochiní, for her part, assumed the form of a bay mare; and
then they fought with their teeth and heels, biting and kicking. Then I
struck that vile witch Somadá a blow with my sword, and she was slain
by Bandhamochiní. Then I was freed from fear, and having escaped the
calamity of bestial transformation, I never again allowed my mind to
entertain the idea of associating with wicked women. Women generally
have these three faults, terrible to the three worlds, flightiness,
recklessness, and a love for the congregation of witches. [556] So why
do you run after Bandhudattá, who is a friend of witches? Since she
does not love her husband, how is it possible that she can love you?
"Though my friend Bhavasarman gave me this advice, I did not do what he
told me; and so I am reduced to this state. So I give you this counsel;
do not suffer hardship to win Anurágapará, for when she obtains a lover
of her own race, she will of a surety desert you. A woman ever desires
fresh men, as a female humble bee wanders from flower to flower; so
you will suffer regret some day, like me, my friend." This speech of
Somasvámin, who had been transformed into a monkey, did not penetrate
the heart of Nischayadatta, for it was full of passion. And he said
to that monkey; "She will not be unfaithful to me, for she is born of
the pure race of the Vidyádharas." Whilst they were thus conversing,
the sun, red with the hues of evening, went to the mountain of setting,
as if wishing to please Nischayadatta. Then the night arrived, as the
harbinger of the Yakshiní Sringotpádiní, and she herself came soon
afterwards. And Nischayadatta mounted on her back, and went off to
go to his beloved, taking leave of the ape, who begged that he might
ever be remembered by him. And at midnight he reached that city of
Pushkarávatí, which was situated on the Himálayas, and belonged to
the king of the Vidyádharas, the father of Anurágapará. At that very
moment Anurágapará, having known by her power of his arrival, came out
from that city to meet him. Then the Yakshiní put down Nischayadatta
from her shoulder, and pointing out to him Anurágapará, said--"Here
comes your beloved, like a second moon giving a feast to your eyes in
the night, so now I will depart," and bowing before him, she went her
way. Then Anurágapará, full of the excitement produced by expectation,
went up to her beloved, and welcomed him with embraces and other signs
of love. He too embraced her, and now that he had obtained the joy of
meeting her after enduring many hardships, he could not be contained
in his own body, and as it were entered hers. So Anurágapará was made
his wife by the Gándharva ceremony of marriage, and she immediately
by her magic skill created a city. In that city, which was outside
the metropolis, he dwelt with her, without her parents suspecting it,
as their eyes were blinded by her skill. And when, on her questioning
him, he told her those strange and painful adventures of his journey,
she respected him much, and bestowed on him all the enjoyments that
heart could wish.
Then Nischayadatta told that Vidyádharí the strange story of
Somasvámin, who had been transformed into a monkey, and said to her,