The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
Vidyádharas named Hemaprabha, the maiden Ratnaprabhá, came of her own
accord, and chose him for a husband. Nevertheless, thinking on that
female swan, he does not enjoy tranquillity; and he told this to me,
who have been his servant from my childhood. Then, while he was out
hunting, it happened that he and I had a meeting in the forest with a
holy female hermit. And in the course of conversation she said to him
with favouring condescension--'Owing to the effect of his actions the
god of Love, my son, became a swan. And a heavenly female, that had
fallen through a curse, became his dear wife, when he was dwelling,
as a swan, in a sandal-wood tree on the bank of the sea. But she
threw herself into the sea, through grief at her offspring having been
carried away by the tide, and then the male swan flung himself into the
sea also. He has now by the favour of Siva been born as yourself, the
son of the king of Vatsa, and you know of that former birth of yours,
my son, for you remember your former existence. And that female swan
has been now born in Karpúrasambhava, a city on the shore of the sea,
as a princess, Karpúriká by name. Therefore, go there, my son, and
win her to wife.' When the holy female hermit had said this, she flew
up into the sky and disappeared. And this lord of mine, having heard
this information, immediately set out with me to come here. And being
attracted by love for you, he risked his life, and after traversing
a hundred difficulties, he reached the shore of the sea. There we
had an interview with the carpenter, named Rájyadhara, who dwells in
Hemapura, and who gave us an ingenious chariot. We have mounted on this
terrible machine, as if it were our courage having taken shape, [623]
and have crossed the perilous gulf of the sea, and arrived at this
town. For this reason, queen, my master wandered about, exclaiming,
'Ah my female swan!' until he came into your presence. Now, from
the pleasing sight of the noble moon of your countenance, he enjoys
the removal of the darkness caused by the presence of innumerable
woes. Now, honour your noble guest with the blue lotus garland of
your look." When Karpúriká heard this feigned speech of Gomukha's,
she thought it was true, relying on the fact that it harmonized with
her own recollections. And she melted in her soul with love, and she
thought, "After all this husband of mine was attached to me, and my
despondency was causeless." And she said--"I am in truth that very
female swan, and I am fortunate in that my husband has for my sake
endured suffering in two births. So now I am your slave, overcome
by love;" and saying this, she honoured Naraváhanadatta with baths
and other hospitalities. Then she informed her father of all this
by the mouth of her attendants, and he, the moment he heard it,
came to her. Then the king thought himself fortunate, having seen
that his daughter had conceived a desire to be married, and that an
appropriate suitor for her had at length arrived in Naraváhanadatta,
who was marked with all the signs of a great emperor. And he gave, with
all due honour, his daughter Karpúriká to Naraváhanadatta according
to the prescribed form. And he gave to that son-in-law of his, at
every circumambulation from left to right of the sacred fire, thirty
millions of gold-pieces, and as many lumps of camphor, the heaps of
which appeared like the peaks of Meru and Kailása that had witnessed
the marriage of Párvatí, come to behold his magnificence. Moreover
the king Karpúraka, who had attained his wish, gave Naraváhanadatta a
hundred millions of excellent garments and three hundred female slaves
well adorned. And Naraváhanadatta, after his marriage, remained with
that Karpúriká, as if with affection incarnate in bodily form. Whose
mind was not delighted at the union of that couple, which resembled
the marriage of the spring-creeper and the spring-festival?
And on the next day Naraváhanadatta, who had attained his object,
said to his beloved Karpúriká, "Come, let us go to Kausámbí." Then
she answered him--"If it is to be so, why should we not go there
immediately in this chariot of yours that flies through the air? If
it is too small, I will furnish another large one, for there is
living here a mechanic who makes ingenious chariots, who has come
from a foreign land, Pránadhara by name; I will cause him quickly to
make such a chariot." After saying this, she called the warder that
kept the door, and said to him--"Go and order that chariot-maker
Pránadhara to prepare a large chariot, that will travel through the
air, for us to start in." Then the queen Karpúriká, having dismissed
the warder, informed her father by the mouth of a slave of her desire
to depart. And while the king, on hearing it, was coming thither,
Naraváhanadatta thus reflected; "This Pránadhara is certainly the
brother of Rájyadhara, whom he described as having run away from his
native land through fear of his king." While he was thus thinking,
the king quickly arrived, and that mechanic Pránadhara came with the
warder, and said--"I have ready-made a very large chariot, which will
easily carry at this instant thousands of men." When the mechanic
said this, Naraváhanadatta said "Bravo!" and asked him courteously;
"Are you the elder brother of Rájyadhara, skilled in various very great
mechanical contrivances?" And Pránadhara answered him, bowing before
him--"I am that very brother of his, but how does Your Highness know
about us?" Then Naraváhanadatta told him what Rájyadhara had told him,
and how he had seen him. Then Pránadhara joyfully brought him the
chariot, and he mounted it with Gomukha, after having been politely
dismissed by his father-in-law the king, and after bidding farewell
to him; but first he placed in it the slaves, camphor and gold. And
he took with him Pránadhara, whom the king permitted to depart, and
that head-warder, and his recently married wife Karpúriká; and his
mother-in-law uttered a solemn prayer for a blessing on his journey,
and from those stores of splendid garments he bestowed gifts on the
Bráhmans; and he said to Pránadhara--"First let us go to Rájyadhara on
the shore of the sea, and then home." Then the chariot was driven on
by Pránadhara, and the king and his wife flew up into the air quickly
by means of it, as if by his accomplished wish. [624] In a moment
he crossed the sea, and reached again that city of Hemapura on its
shore, the abode of that Rájyadhara. There Rájyadhara bowed before
him, delighted at beholding his brother, and as he had no female
slaves, the prince honoured him with the gift of some, at which he
greatly rejoiced. And after taking leave of Rájyadhara, whose tears
flowed fast, as he could hardly bear to part from his elder brother,
the prince reached Kausámbí in that same chariot. Then the people,
on beholding the prince unexpectedly descend from heaven, riding in
that splendid chariot, followed by his retainers, and accompanied by
his new bride, were much astonished. And his father, the king of Vatsa,
having gathered from the exultations of the citizens that his son had
arrived, was delighted, and went out to meet him, accompanied by the
queen, the ministers, his daughter-in-law, and other persons. And
the king, beholding that son prostrate at his feet with his wife,
received him gladly, and thought that the fact, that he was to be
the future emperor of the aerial spirits, was clearly revealed by his
coming in a flying chariot. His mother Vásavadattá, with Padmávatí,
embraced him, and she shed a tear, which dropped like the knot of pain
loosened by seeing him. And his wife Ratnaprabhá was delighted, and
Madanamanchuká also, and their jealousy being overcome by love for him,
they embraced his feet, and won his heart at the same time. And the
prince delighted his father's ministers, headed by Yaugandharáyana,
and his own, headed by Marubhúti, when they bowed before him, by
rewarding them as they severally deserved. And they all, with the
king of Vatsa at their head, welcomed that new wife Karpúriká, who
bowed becomingly before them, like the goddess of Fortune arrived
surrounded by a hundred immortal nymphs, even the sister-shape of
Amrita, [625] openly brought by her husband, having crossed the sea
adorned with its shore as a garment with a beautiful fringe. And the
king of Vatsa honoured that warder of her father's, giving him many
crores of gold-pieces, garments and lumps of camphor, which had been
brought in the chariot. And the king then honoured Pránadhara as the
benefactor of his son Naraváhanadatta, who had pointed him out as the
maker of the chariot. And then the king honoured Gomukha, and asked
him joyfully, "How did you obtain this princess? And how did you start
from this place?" And then Gomukha deftly told the king of Vatsa,
with his wives and ministers, in private, the whole adventure, as it
took place, beginning with their going to the forest to hunt,----how
they met the female hermit, and how they crossed the sea by means of
the chariot provided by Rájyadhara, and how Karpúriká was obtained
with her female attendants, though she was averse to marriage, and how
they returned by the way by which they went, in a chariot which they
obtained by finding Pránadhara. Then all of them, shaking their heads
in astonishment and joy, said--"To think of the concurrence of all
these circumstances, the chase, and the female ascetic, the carpenter
Rájyadhara skilled in mechanical contrivances found on the shore of
the sea, the crossing the ocean in the chariot that he made, and that
another maker of these chariots should have previously reached the
other side of the ocean! The truth is, Destiny takes trouble to provide
the fortunate with the means of obtaining prosperous success." Then
all respectfully commended Gomukha for his devotion to his lord. And
they praised queen Ratnaprabhá, who by her knowledge protected her
lord on his journey, for she produced general satisfaction by acting
like a woman devoted to her husband. Then Naraváhanadatta, having made
his party of air-travellers forget the fatigues of their journey,
entered his palace with his father, and mother, his wives and other
relations. Then his treasury was filled with heaps of gold by the
friends and relations who came to see him, and whom he honoured, and
he loaded Pránadhara and his father-in-law's warder with wealth. And
Pránadhara, immediately after he had taken food, respectfully addressed
this petition to him--"Prince, king Karpúriká gave us the following
order--'You must come back quickly as soon as my daughter has reached
her husband's palace, in order that I may have early news of her
arrival.' So we must certainly go there quickly this very moment; give
us a letter from Karpúriká to the king written with her own hand. For
otherwise the heart of the king, which is attached to his daughter,
will not take comfort. For he, never having mounted an air-chariot,
fears that we may have fallen from it. So give me the letter, and
permit this head-warder, who is desirous of ascending the chariot,
to depart with me. But I will return here, crown-prince, and will
bring my family, for I cannot abandon the two ambrosial lotuses of
your feet." When Pránadhara said this firmly, the son of the king of
Vatsa immediately made Karpúriká sit down to write that letter. It
ran as follows, "My father, you must not feel anxious about me,
since I share the happiness and possess the love of a good husband;
was the goddess Lakshmí an object of anxiety to the ocean after she
had betaken herself to the Supreme Bridegroom?" When she had written
the above letter with her own hand, and given it, the son of the king
of Vatsa dismissed the warder and Pránadhara with honour. And they
ascended the chariot, and produced astonishment in the minds of all,