The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 81

Story of Ghanta and Nighanta and the two maidens.

Long ago there came to impede Praj.a.pati, in his creation of creatures, two terrible Danavas, named Ghanta and Nighanta, invincible even by G.o.ds. And the Creator, being desirous of destroying them, created these two maidens, the splendour of whose measureless beauty seemed capable of maddening the world. And those two mighty Asuras, when they saw these two exceedingly wonderful maidens, tried to carry them off; and fighting with one another, they both of them met their death. [772]

Then Brahma bestowed these maidens on Kuvera, saying, "You must give these girls to some suitable husband;" and Kuvera made them over to my husband, who is his younger brother; and in the same way my husband pa.s.sed these fair ones [773] on to me; and I have thought of king Vikramaditya as a husband for them, for, as he is an incarnation of a G.o.d, he is a fit person for them to marry.

"Such are the facts with regard to these maidens, now hear the history of the deer."

Story of the golden deer.

Indra has a beloved son, named Jayanta. Once on a time, when he, still an infant, was being carried about in the air by the celestial nymphs, he saw some princes in a wood on earth playing with some young deer. Then Jayanta [774] went to heaven, and cried in the presence of his father because he had not got a deer to play with, as a child would naturally do. Accordingly Indra had a deer made for him by Visvakarman of gold and jewels, and life was given to the animal by sprinkling it with nectar. Then Jayanta played with it, and was delighted with it, and the young deer was continually roaming about in heaven.

In course of time that son of Ravana, who was rightly named Indrajit, [775] carried off the young deer from heaven and took it to his own city Lanka. And after a further period had elapsed, Ravana and Indrajit having been slain by the heroes Rama and Lakshmana, to avenge the carrying off of Sita, and Vibhishana having been set upon the throne of Lanka, as king of the Rakshasas, that wonderful deer of gold and jewels remained in his palace. And once on a time, when I was taken by my husband's relations to Vibhishana's palace on the occasion of a festival, he gave me the deer as a complimentary present. And that young heaven-born deer is now in my house, and I must bestow it on your master.

And while the Yaks.h.i.+ni was telling me this string of tales, the sun, the friend of the kamalini, went to rest. Then I and the amba.s.sador of the king of Sinhala went to sleep, both of us, after the evening ceremonies, in a palace which the Yaks.h.i.+ni a.s.signed to us.

In the morning we woke up and saw, my sovereign, that the army of Vikramasakti, your va.s.sal, had arrived. We reflected that that must be a display of the Yaks.h.i.+ni's power, and quickly went wondering into the presence of Vikramasakti. And he, as soon as he saw us, showed us great honour, and asked after our welfare; and was on the point of asking us what message the king of Sinhala had sent, when the two heavenly maidens, whose history the Yaks.h.i.+ni had related to us, and the young deer arrived there, escorted by the army of the Yakshas. When king Vikramasakti saw this, he suspected some glamour of malignant demons, and he said to me apprehensively "What is the meaning of this?" Then I told him in due course the commission of the king of Sinhala, and the circ.u.mstances connected with the Yaks.h.i.+ni, the two maidens, and the deer. Moreover I informed him of the hostile scheme of your majesty's enemies, which was to be carried out by all the kings in combination, and which I had heard of from the Yaks.h.i.+. Then Vikramasakti honoured us two amba.s.sadors, and those two heavenly maidens; and being delighted made his army ready for battle with the a.s.sistance of the other va.s.sal kings.

And immediately, king, there was heard in the army the loud beating of drums, and immediately there was seen the mighty host of hostile kings, accompanied by the Mlechchhas. Then our army and the hostile army, furious at beholding one another, closed with a rush, and the battle began. Thereupon some of the Yakshas sent by the Yaks.h.i.+ entered our soldiers, and so smote the army of the enemies, and others smote them in open fight. [776] And there arose a terrible tempest of battle, overspread with a cloud formed of the dust raised by the army, in which sword-blades fell thick as rain, and the shouts of heroes thundered. And the heads of our enemies flying up, as they were cut off, and falling again, made it seem as if the Fortune of our victory were playing at ball. And in a moment those kings that had escaped the slaughter, their troops having been routed, submitted and repaired for protection to the camp of your va.s.sal.

Then, lord of earth, as you had conquered the four cardinal points and the dvipas, and had destroyed all the Mlechchhas, that Yaks.h.i.+ni appeared, accompanied by her husband, and said to king Vikramasakti and to me, "You must tell your master that what I have done has been done merely by way of service to him, and you must also request him, as from me, to marry these two G.o.d-framed maidens, and to look upon them with favour, and to cherish this deer also, for it is a present from me." When the Yaks.h.i.+ had said this, she bestowed a heap of jewels, and disappeared with her husband, and her attendants. The next day, Mada.n.a.lekha, the daughter of the king of Sinhala, came with a great retinue and much magnificence. And then Vikramasakti went to meet her, and bending low, joyfully conducted her into his camp. And on the second day Vikramasakti, having accomplished his object, set out with the other kings from that place, in order to come here and behold your Majesty's feet, bringing with him that princess and the two heavenly maidens, and that deer composed of gold and jewels, a marvel for the eyes of the three worlds. And now, sovereign, that va.s.sal prince has arrived near this city, and has sent us two on in front to inform Your Highness. So let the king, out of regard for the lord of Sinhala and the Yaks.h.i.+, go forth to meet those maidens and the deer, and also the subject kings.

When Anangadeva had said this to king Vikramaditya, though the king recollected accomplis.h.i.+ng that difficult rescue of the Yaks.h.i.+ni, he did not consider it worth a straw, when he heard of the return she had made for it; great-souled men, even when they have done much, think it worth very little. And, being much pleased, he loaded [777] Anangadeva for the second time, with elephants, horses, villages, and jewels, and bestowed similar gifts on the amba.s.sador of the king of Sinhala.

And after he had spent that day, the king set out from Ujjayini, with his warriors mounted on elephants and horses, to meet that daughter of the king of Sinhala, and those two maidens created by Brahma. And the following speeches of the military officers, a.s.signing elephants and horses, were heard in the neighbourhood of the city when the kings started, and within the city itself when the sovereign started; "Jayavardhana must take the good elephant Anangagiri, and Ranabhata the furious elephant Kalamegha, and Sinhaparakrama Sangramasiddhi, and the hero Vikramanidhi Ripurakshasa, and Jayaketu Pavanajava, and Vallabhasakti Samudrakallola, and Bahu and Subahu the two horses Saravega and Garudavega, and Kirtivarman the black Konkan mare Kuvalayamala, and Samarasinha the white mare Gangalahari of pure Sindh breed."

When that king, the supreme sovereign of all the dvipas, had started on his journey, the earth was covered with soldiers, the quarters were full of nothing but the shouts that they raised, even the heaven was obscured with the dust that was diffused by the trampling of his advancing army, and all men's voices were telling of the wonderful greatness of his might.

CHAPTER CXXII.

Then king Vikramaditya reached that victorious army commanded by that Vikramasakti his general, and he entered it at the head of his forces, accompanied by that general, who came to meet him, eager and with loyal mind, together with the va.s.sal kings.

The kings were thus announced by the warders in the tent of a.s.sembly, "Your Majesty, here is Saktik.u.mara the king of Gauda come to pay you his respects, here is Jayadhvaja the king of Karnata, here is Vijayavarman of Lata, here is Sunandana of Kasmira, here is Gopala king of Sindh, here is Vindhyabala the Bhilla, and here is Nirmuka the king of the Persians." And when they had been thus announced, the king honoured them, and the feudal chiefs, and also the soldiers. And he welcomed in appropriate fas.h.i.+on the daughter of the king of Sinhala, and the heavenly maidens, and the golden deer, and Vikramasakti. And the next day the successful monarch Vikramaditya set out with them and his forces, and reached the city of Ujjayini.

Then, the kings having been dismissed with marks of honour [778]

to their own territories, and the world-gladdening festival of the spring season having arrived, when the creepers began, so to speak, to adorn themselves with flowers for jewels, and the female bees to keep up a concert with their humming, and the ranges of the wood to dance embraced by the wind, and the cuckoos with melodious notes to utter auspicious prayers, king Vikramaditya married on a fortunate day that daughter of the king of Sinhala, and those two heavenly maidens. And Sinhavarman, the eldest brother of the princess of Sinhala, who had come with her, bestowed at the marriage-altar a great heap of jewels.

And at that moment the Yaks.h.i.+ni Madanamanjari appeared, and gave those two heavenly maidens countless heaps of jewels. The Yaks.h.i.+ said, "How can I ever, king, recompense you for your benefits? But I have done this unimportant service to testify my devotion to you. So you must shew favour to these maidens, and to the deer." When the Yaks.h.i.+ had said this, she departed honoured by the king.

Then the successful king Vikramaditya, having obtained those wives and the earth with all its dvipas, ruled a realm void of opponents; and he enjoyed himself roaming in all the garden grounds; during the hot season living in the water of tanks and in artificial fountain-chambers, during the rains in inner apartments charming on account of the noise of cymbals that arose in them, during the autumn on the tops of palaces, joyous with banquets under the rising moon, during the winter in chambers where comfortable couches were spread, and which were fragrant with black aloes, being ever surrounded by his wives.

Story of Malayavati the man-hating maiden.

Now this king, being such as I have described, had a painter named Nagarasvamin, who enjoyed the revenues of a hundred villages, and surpa.s.sed Visvakarman. That painter used every two or three days to paint a picture of a girl, and give it as a present to the king, taking care to exemplify different types of beauty.

Now, once on a time, it happened that that painter had, because a feast was going on, forgotten to paint the required girl for the king. And when the day for giving the present arrived, the painter remembered and was bewildered, saying to himself, "Alas! what can I give to the king?" And at that moment a traveller come from afar suddenly approached him and placed a book in his hand, and went off somewhere quickly. The painter out of curiosity opened the book, and saw within a picture of a girl on canvas. Inasmuch as the girl was of wonderful beauty, no sooner did he see her picture then he took it and gave it to the king, rejoicing that, so far from having no picture to present that day, he had obtained such an exceedingly beautiful one. But the king, as soon as he saw it, was astonished, and said to him, "My good fellow, this is not your painting, this is the painting of Visvakarman: for how could a mere mortal be skilful enough to paint such beauty?" When the painter heard this, he told the king exactly what had taken place.

Then the king kept ever looking at the picture of the girl, and never took his eyes off it, and one night he saw in a dream a girl exactly like her, but in another dvipa. But as he eagerly rushed to embrace her, who was eager to meet him, the night came to an end, and he was woke up by the watchman. [779] When the king awoke, he was so angry at the interruption of his delightful interview with that maiden, that he banished that watchman from the city. And he said to himself, "To think that a traveller should bring a book, and that in it there should be the painted figure of a girl, and that I should in a dream behold this same girl apparently alive! All this elaborate dispensation of destiny makes me think that she must be a real maiden, but I do not know in what dvipa she lives; how am I to obtain her?"

Full of such reflections, the king took pleasure in nothing, [780]

and burnt with the fever of love so that his attendants were full of anxiety. And the warder Bhadrayudha asked the afflicted king in private the cause of his grief, whereupon he spake as follows:

"Listen, I will tell you, my friend. So much at any rate you know, that that painter gave me the picture of a girl. And I fell asleep thinking on her, and I remember that in my dream I crossed the sea, and reached and entered a very beautiful city. There I saw many armed maidens in front of me, and they, as soon as they saw me, raised a tumultuous cry of 'Kill, kill.' [781] Then a certain female ascetic came and with great precipitation made me enter her house, and briefly said to me this, 'My son, here is the man-hating princess Malayavati come this way, diverting herself as she pleases. And the moment she sees a man, she makes these maidens of hers kill him: so I brought you in here to save your life.' [782]

"When the female ascetic had said this, she immediately made me put on female attire; and I submitted to that, knowing that it was not lawful to slay those maidens. But, when the princess entered into the house with her maidens, I looked at her, and lo! she was the very lady that had been shewn me in a picture. And I said to myself, 'Fortunate am I in that, after first seeing this lady in a picture, I now behold her again in flesh and blood, dear as my life.'

"In the meanwhile the princess, at the head of her maidens, said to that female ascetic, 'We saw some male enter here.' The ascetic shewed me, and answered, 'I know of no male; here is my sister's daughter, who is with me as a guest.' Then the princess seeing me, although I was disguised as a woman, forgot her dislike of men, and was at once overcome by love. She remained for a moment, with every hair on her body erect, motionless as if in thought, being, so to speak, nailed to the spot at once with arrows by Love, who had spied his opportunity. And in a moment the princess said to the ascetic, 'Then, n.o.ble lady, why should not your sister's daughter be my guest also? Let her come to my palace; I will send her back duly honoured.' Saying this, she took me by the hand, and led me away to her palace. And I remember, I discerned her intention, and consented, and went there, and that sly old female ascetic gave me leave to depart.

"Then I remained there with that princess, who was diverting herself with the amus.e.m.e.nt of marrying her maidens to one another, and so forth. Her eyes were fixed on me, and she would not let me out of her sight for an instant, and no occupation pleased her in which I did not take part. Then those maidens, I remember, made the princess a bride, and me her husband, and married us in sport. And when we had been married, we entered at night the bridal chamber, and the princess fearlessly threw her arms round my neck. And then I told her who I was, and embraced her, and delighted at having attained her object, she looked at me and then remained a long time with her eyes bashfully fixed on the ground. And at that moment that villain of a watchman woke me up. So, Bhadrayudha, the upshot of the whole matter is that I can no longer live without that Malayavati, whom I have seen in a picture and in a dream."

When the king said this, the warder Bhadrayudha perceived that it was a true dream, and he consoled the monarch, and said to him, "If the king remembers it all exactly, let him draw that city on a piece of canvas in order that some expedient may be devised in this matter." The moment the king heard this suggestion of Bhadrayudha's, he proceeded to draw that splendid city on a piece of canvas, and all the scene that took place there. Then the warder at once took the drawing, and had a new monastery [783] made, and hung it up there on the wall. And he directed that in relief-houses attached to the monastery, a quant.i.ty of food, with pairs of garments and gold, should be given to bards coming from distant countries. And he gave this order to the dwellers in the monastery, "If any one comes here, who knows the city represented here in a picture, let me be informed of it."

In the meanwhile the fierce elephant of the rainy season with irresistible loud deep thunder-roar and long ketaka tusks came down upon the forest of the heats, a forest the breezes of which were scented with the perfume of the jasmine, in which travellers sat down on the ground in the shade, and trumpet-flowers bloomed. At that time the forest-fire of separation of that king Vikramaditya began to burn more fiercely, fanned by the eastern breeze. [784]

Then the following cries were heard among the ladies of his court, "Haralata, bring ice! Chitrangi, sprinkle him with sandal-wood juice! Patralekha, make a bed cool with lotus-leaves! Kandarpasena, fan him with plantain-leaves!" And in course of time the cloudy season terrible with lightning pa.s.sed away for that king, but the fever of love burning [785] with the sorrow of separation did not pa.s.s away.

Then the autumn with her open lotus-face, and smile of unclosed flowers, came, vocal with the cries of swans, [786] seeming to utter this command, "Let travellers advance on their journey; let pleasant tidings be brought about absent dear ones; happy may their merry meetings be!" On a certain day in that season a bard, who had come from a distance, of the name of Sanvarasiddhi, having heard the fame of that monastery, built by the warder, entered it to get food. After he had been fed, and presented with a pair of garments, he saw that painting on the wall of the monastery. When the bard had carefully scanned the city delineated there, he was astonished, and said, "I wonder who can have drawn this city? For I alone have seen it, I am certain, and no other; and here it is drawn by some second person." When the inhabitants of the monastery heard that, they told Bhadrayudha; then he came in person, and took that bard to the king. The king said to Sanvarasiddhi, "Have you really seen that city?" Then Sanvarasiddhi gave him the following answer.

"When I was wandering about the world, I crossed the sea that separates the dvipas, and beheld that great city Malayapura. In that city there dwells a king of the name of Malayasinha, and he has a matchless daughter, named Malayavati, who used to abhor males. But one night she somehow or other saw in a dream a great hero in a convent. [787]

The moment she saw him, that evil spirit of detestation of the male s.e.x fled from her mind, as if terrified. Then she took him to her palace, and in her dream married him, and entered with him the bridal chamber. And at that moment the night came to an end, and an attendant in her room woke her up. Then she banished that servant in her anger, and thinking upon that dear one, whom she had seen in her dream, seeing no way of escape owing to the blazing fire of separation, utterly overpowered by love, she never rose from her couch except to fall back upon it again with relaxed limbs. She was dumb, as if possessed by a demon, as if stunned by a blow, [788] for when her attendants questioned her, she gave them no answer.

"Then her father and mother came to hear of it, and questioned her; and at last she was, with exceeding difficulty, persuaded to tell them what happened to her in the dream, by the mouth of a confidential female friend. Then her father comforted her, but she made a solemn vow that, if she did not obtain her beloved in six months, she would enter the fire. And already five months are past; who knows what will become of her? This is the story that I heard about her in that city."

When Sanvarasiddhi had told this story, which tallied so well with the king's own dream, the king was pleased at knowing the certainty of the matter, and Bhadrayudha said to him, "The business is as good as effected, for that king and his country own your paramount supremacy. So let us go there before the sixth month has pa.s.sed away." When the warder had said this, king Vikramaditya made him inform Sanvarasiddhi of all the circ.u.mstances connected with the matter, and honoured him with a present of much wealth, and bade him shew him the way, and then he seemed to bequeath his own burning heat to the rays of the sun, his paleness to the clouds, and his thinness to the waters of the rivers, [789] and having become free from sorrow, set out at once, escorted by a small force, for the dwelling-place of his beloved.

In course of time, as he advanced, he crossed the sea, and reached that city, and there he saw the people in front of it engaged in loud lamentation, and when he questioned them, he received this answer, "The princess Malayavati here, as the period of six months is at an end, and she has not obtained her beloved, is preparing to enter the fire." Then the king went to the place where the pyre had been made ready.

"When the people saw him, they made way for him, and then the princess beheld that unexpected nectar-rain to her eyes. And she said to her ladies-in-waiting, "Here is that beloved come who married me in a dream, so tell my father quickly." They went and told this to her father, and then that king, delivered from his grief, and filled with joy, submissively approached the sovereign. At that moment the bard Sanvarasiddhi, who knew his time, lifted up his arm, and chanted aloud this strain, "Hail thou that with the flame of thy valour hast consumed the forest of the army of demons and Mlechchhas! Hail king, lord of the seven-sea-girt earth-bride! Hail thou that hast imposed thy exceedingly heavy yoke on the bowed heads of all kings, conquered by thee! Hail, Vishamasila, hail Vikramaditya, ocean of valour!"

When the bard said this, king Malayasinha knew that it was Vikramaditya himself that had come, and embraced his feet. [790] And after he had welcomed him, he entered his palace with him, and his daughter Malayavati, thus delivered from death. And that king gave that daughter of his to king Vikramaditya, thinking himself fortunate in having obtained such a son-in-law. And king Vikramaditya, when he saw in his arms, in flesh and blood, that Malayavati, whom he had previously seen in a picture and in a dream, considered it a wonderful fruit of the wis.h.i.+ng-tree of Siva's favour. Then Vikramaditya took with him his wife Malayavati, like an incarnation of bliss, and crossed the sea resembling his long regretful [791] separation, and being submissively waited upon at every step by kings, with various presents in their hands, returned to his own city Ujjayini. And on beholding there that might of his, that satisfied [792] freely every kind of curiosity, what people were not astonished, what people did not rejoice, what people did not make high festival?

CHAPTER CXXIII.

Then, once on a time, in the course of conversation, one of Vikramaditya's queens, called Kalingasena, said to her rival queens, "What the king did for the sake of Malayavati was not wonderful, for this king Vishamasila has ever been famous on the earth for such like acts. Was not I swooped down on by him and married by force, after he had seen a carved likeness of me and been overcome by love? On this account the karpatika [793] Devasena told me a story: that story I will proceed to tell you; listen."