The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 61

CHAPTER XCVII.

(Vetala 23.)

Then the n.o.ble king Trivikramasena went back, and again took down that Vetala from the asoka-tree, and though the Vetala transformed himself in all possible ways, he put him on his shoulder and started off with him in silence, and then the Vetala said to him, "King, though the business in which you are engaged is not becoming to you, you exhibit in it undaunted perseverance; so listen, I will tell you a tale to dispel your fatigue."

Story of the Hermit who first wept and then danced.

There is in the land of Kalinga a city named Sobhavati, like the city of Indra in heaven, the abode of those that act aright. It was ruled by a king named Pradyumna, whose sway was mighty, and who, like the G.o.d Pradyumna, was celebrated for his exceeding power and valour. The only detraction heard in his realm was that of the string from the bow, the only pressure that of the fingers on the cymbal, vice was only known in the name of the age, [404] and keenness only in the pursuit of knowledge.

In a certain part of that town there was a grant named Yajnasthala, given by that king, on which many Brahmans were settled. There lived on it a very wealthy Brahman who had mastered the Vedas, whose name was Yajnasoma. He maintained a sacrificial fire, and honoured guests, and the G.o.ds. After his youth was past, there was born to him by his wife, who was in every way a suitable match for him, an only son, the child of a hundred wishes. And that promising boy grew up in his father's house, and the Brahmans duly named him Devasoma. And when he had attained the age of sixteen years, that boy, who captivated all by his knowledge, modesty, and other good qualities, suddenly died of a fever. Then Yajnasoma, together with his wife, remained lovingly embracing that dead boy, and lamenting over him, and refused for a long time to let him be taken away to be burnt.

Then the old men a.s.sembled and reproved that Brahman in the following words, "Brahman, are you not aware, though you know what is near and far, that the condition of this Fata Morgana of a world is frail as a bubble on water? Look at those kings who filled the earth with their armies, and enjoyed themselves in this world, deeming themselves immortal, lying on jewelled couches on the delightful summits of palaces, that resounded with the warbling of music, having their bodies anointed with sandal-wood ointment and other fragrant unguents, and begirt with beautiful women. Even these no one could save from being consumed by flesh-devouring flames, lying alone on the funeral pyre in the cemetery whither the dead are followed by weeping friends, and when their extremities had been shrivelled, from being at last devoured by the jackals: much less can any others escape this fate. So tell us, wise man, what mean you by embracing that corpse?" Many other speeches of this kind did they address to him.

At last with difficulty his relations got him to stop clinging to his dead son, and then, after the body had been laid out, they put it on a bier, and with loud lamentations carried it to the burning-place, accompanied by many people who shed tears on account of the calamity.

Now at that time there was dwelling in that cemetery an old Pasupata ascetic possessing supernatural power, who lived in a hut. His name was Vamasiva. His body was emaciated with age and excessive asceticism, and bound round with veins, as if for fear that it would break. He was covered all over with hair white with ashes, his matted locks were yellow as lightning, and he looked like a second Siva. When that hermit heard in the distance the lamentation of those people outside his hut, he said to the pupil that lived with him, "Rise up! go and find out the meaning of this confused noise outside in the cemetery, such as I never heard before, and come back quickly, and tell me." Now this pupil was one who had taken a vow of living on the products of begging; he was a fool, and a rogue, and an egoist, puffed up with contemplation, magical powers, and other things of the kind, and at this time he was annoyed because his teacher had rebuked him. So, when his teacher gave him this order, he answered him, "I will not go; go yourself, for my time for begging is fast slipping away." When the teacher heard that, he said, "Out on you, fool, devoted to your belly! Only half one watch of the day has pa.s.sed: how can it be your time for begging now?" When the wicked pupil heard that, he was angry, and said to his teacher; "Out on you, you decrepit old creature! I am no longer your pupil, and you are no longer my teacher. I will go elsewhere, carry this vessel yourself." When he had said this, he put down in front of him his stick and water-vessel, and got up and went away.

Then the hermit left his hut, laughing as he went, and came to the place where the young Brahman had been brought to be burned. And when the hermit saw him, with the people lamenting for the flower of his youth, being afflicted with old age, and possessed of magical powers, he determined to enter his body. So he quickly went aside, and first wept aloud, and immediately afterwards he danced with appropriate gesticulations. [405] Then the ascetic, longing to be young again, abandoned his own body, and at once entered by magic power that young Brahman's body. And immediately the young Brahman on the pyre, which was ready prepared, returned to life, and rose up with a yawn. When his relations and all the people saw that, they raised a loud shout of "Hurrah! he is alive! he is alive!"

Then that ascetic, who was a mighty sorcerer, and had thus entered the young Brahman's body, not intending to abandon his vow, told them all the following falsehood; "Just now, when I went to the other world, Siva himself restored my life to me, telling me that I must take upon me the vow of a Pasupata ascetic. And I must this moment go into a solitary place and support this vow, otherwise I cannot live, so depart you, and I also will depart." Saying this to all those present, the resolute votary, bewildered with mixed feelings of joy and grief, dismissed them to their own homes. And he himself went, and threw that former body of his into a ravine; and so that great magician, who had taken the vow, having become young, went away to another place.

When the Vetala had told this story that night on the way, he again said to king Trivikramasena, "Tell me, king, why did that mighty magician, when entering another body, first weep, and then dance? I have a great desire to know this."

When that king, who was a chief of sages, heard this question of the Vetala's, fearing the curse, he broke silence, and gave him this answer, "Hear what the feelings of that ascetic were. He was grieved because he thought that he was just going to abandon that body, which had grown up with him through many years, by living in which he had acquired magic power, and which his parents had fondled, when he was a child, so he wept violently; for affection for one's body is a deeply rooted feeling. But he danced for joy, because he thought that he was about to enter a new body, and that by means of that he would acquire greater magic power; for to whom is not youth pleasing."

When the Vetala, who was inside that corpse, heard this speech of the king's, he left his shoulder and went back to that asoka-tree; but that exceedingly undaunted monarch again ran after him, to recover him; for the resolution of determined men surpa.s.ses in firmness the mighty mountains, and remains unshaken even at the end of a kalpa.

CHAPTER XCVIII.

(Vetala 24.)

Then the brave king Trivikramasena, disregarding the awful night, which in that terrible cemetery a.s.sumed the appearance of a Rakshasi, being black with darkness, and having the flames of the funeral pyres for fiery eyes, again went to the asoka-tree, and took from it the Vetala, and put him on his shoulder.

And while he was going along with him, as before, the Vetala again said to that king, "O king, I am tired out with going backwards and forwards, though you are not: so I will put to you one difficult question, and mind you listen to me."

Story of the father that married the daughter and the son that married the mother.

There was in the Dekkan a king of a small province, who was named Dharma; he was the chief of virtuous men, but he had many relations who aspired to supplant him. He had a wife named Chandravati, who came from the land of Malava; she was of high lineage, and the most virtuous of women. And that king had born to him by that wife one daughter, who was not without cause named Lavanyavati. [406]

And when that daughter had attained a marriageable age, king Dharma was ejected from his throne by his relations, who banded together and divided his realm. Then he fled from his kingdom at night with his wife and that daughter, taking with him a large number of valuable jewels, and he deliberately set out for Malava the dwelling-place of his father-in-law. And in the course of that same night he reached the Vindhya forest with his wife and daughter. And when he entered it, the night, that had escorted him thus far, took leave of him with drops of dew by way of tears. And the sun ascended the eastern mountain, stretching forth its first rays, like a warning hand, to dissuade him from entering that brigand-haunted wood. Then he travelled on through it with his wife and daughter, having his feet wounded with sharp points of kusa-gra.s.s, and he reached a village of the Bhillas. It was full of men that robbed their neighbours of life and property, and shunned by the virtuous, like the strong city of Death.

Then beholding the king from a distance with his dress and ornaments, many Savaras, armed with various weapons, ran to plunder him. When king Dharma saw that, he said to his daughter and wife, "The barbarians will seize on you first, so enter the wood in this direction." When the king said this to them, queen Chandravati and her daughter Lavanyavati, in their terror, plunged into the middle of the wood. And the brave king, armed with sword and s.h.i.+eld, killed many of the Savaras, who came towards him, raining arrows. Then the chief summoned the whole village, and falling on the king, who stood there alone, they slashed his s.h.i.+eld to pieces and killed him; and then the host of bandits departed with his ornaments. And queen Chandravati, concealed in a thicket of the wood, saw from a distance her husband slain: so in her bewilderment she fled with her daughter, and they entered another dense forest a long distance off. There they found that the shadows of the trees, afflicted by the heat of midday, had laid themselves at their cool roots, imitating travellers. So, tired and sad, the queen sat down weeping with her daughter, in a spot on the bank of a lotus-lake, under the shade of an asoka-tree.

In the meanwhile a chief, who lived near, came to that forest on horseback, with his son, to hunt. He was named Chandasinha, and when he saw their footsteps imprinted in the dust, he said to his son Sinhaparakrama, "We will follow up these lovely and auspicious tracks, and if we find the ladies to whom they belong, you shall choose whichever you please of them." When Chandasinha said this, his son Sinhaparakrama said to him, "I should like to have for a wife the one that has these small feet, for I know that she will be young and suited to me. But this one with large feet, being older than the other, will just suit you. When Chandasinha heard this speech of his son's, he said to him, "What is this that you say? Your mother has only recently gone to heaven, and now that I have lost so good a wife, how can I desire another?" When Chandasinha's son heard that, he said to him, "Father, do not say so, for the home of a householder is empty without a wife. Moreover, have you not heard the stanza composed by Muladeva? 'Who, that is not a fool, enters that house in which there is no shapely love eagerly awaiting his return, which, though called a house, is really a prison without chains.' So, father, my death will lie at your door, if you do not take as your wife that companion of the lady whom I have chosen."

When Chandasinha heard this speech of his son's, he approved it, and went on slowly with him, tracking up their footsteps. And he reached that spot near the lake, and saw that dark queen Chandravati, adorned with many strings of pearls, sitting in the shade of a tree. She looked like the midnight sky in the middle of the day, and her daughter Lavanyavati, like the pure white moonlight, seemed to illumine her. And he and his son eagerly approached her, and she, when she saw him, rose up terrified, thinking that he was a bandit.

But the queen's daughter said to her, "Mother, do not be afraid, these are not bandits, these two gentle-looking well-dressed persons are certainly some n.o.bles come here to hunt." However the queen still continued to hesitate; and then Chandasinha got down from his horse and said to the two ladies, "Do not be alarmed; we have come here to see you out of love; so take confidence [407] and tell us fearlessly who you are, since you seem like Rati and Priti fled to this wood in sorrow at Cupid's having been consumed by the flames of Siva's fiery eye. And how did you two come to enter this unpeopled wood? For these forms of yours are fitted to dwell in a gem-adorned palace. And our minds are tortured to think how your feet, that deserve to be supported by the lap of beautiful women, can have traversed this ground full of thorns. And, strange to say, the dust raised by the wind, falling on your faces, makes our faces lose their brightness from despondency. [408] And the furious heat of the beams of the fierce-rayed sun, as it plays on your flower-soft bodies, burns us. So tell us your story; for our hearts are afflicted; we cannot bear to see you thus abiding in a forest full of wild beasts."

When Chandasinha said this, the queen sighed, and full of shame and grief, slowly told him her story. Then Chandasinha, seeing that she had no protector, comforted her and her daughter, and coaxed them with kind words into becoming members of his family. And he and his son put the queen and her daughter on their horses, and conducted them to their rich palace in Vittapapuri. And the queen, being helpless, submitted to his will, as if she had been born again in a second life. What is an unprotected woman, fallen into calamity in a foreign land, to do? Then Sinhaparakrama, the son of Chandasinha, made Chandravati his wife, on account of the smallness of her feet. And Chandasinha made her daughter, the princess Lavanyavati, his wife, on account of the largeness of her feet. For they made this agreement originally, when they saw the two tracks of the small footsteps and the large footsteps: and who ever swerves from his plighted word?

So, from the mistake about the feet, the daughter became the wife of the father, and the mother the wife of the son, and so the daughter became the mother-in-law of her own mother, and the mother became the daughter-in-law of her own daughter. And in course of time, both of them had by those husbands sons and daughters, and they also had sons and daughters in due course of time. So Chandasinha and Sinhaparakrama lived in their city, having obtained as wives Lavanyavati and Chandravati.

When the Vetala had told this story on the way at night, he again put a question to king Trivikramasena; "Now, king, about the children who were in course of time born to the mother and daughter by the son and the father in those two lines--what relations.h.i.+p did they bear to one another? Tell me if you know. And the curse before threatened will descend on you, if you know and do not tell."

When the king heard this question of the Vetala's, he turned the matter over and over again in his mind, but he could not find out, so he went on his way in silence. Then the Vetala in the dead man's body, perched on the top of his shoulder, laughed to himself, and reflected; "Ha! Ha! The king does not know how to answer this puzzling question, so he is glad, and silently goes on his way with very nimble feet. Now I cannot manage to deceive this treasure-house of valour any further; [409] and this is not enough to make that mendicant stop playing tricks with me. So I will now deceive that villain, and by an artifice bestow the success, which he has earned, upon this king, whom a glorious future awaits."

When the Vetala had gone through these reflections, he said to the king, "King, though you have been worried with so many journeys to and fro in this cemetery terrible with black night, you seem quite happy, and you do not shew the least irresolution. I am pleased with this wonderful courage that you shew. [410] So now carry off this body, for I am going out of it; and listen to this advice which I give you for your welfare, and act on it. That wicked mendicant, for whom you have fetched this human corpse, will immediately summon me into it, and honour me. And wis.h.i.+ng to offer you up as a victim, the rascal will say to you, 'King, prostrate yourself on the ground in such a way that eight limbs will touch it.' Then, great king, you must say to that ascetic, [411] 'Shew me first how to do it, and then I will do exactly as you do.' Then he will fling himself on the ground, and shew you how to perform the prostration, and that moment you must cut off his head with the sword. Then you will obtain that prize which he desires, the sovereignty of the Vidyadharas; enjoy this earth by sacrificing him! But otherwise that mendicant will offer you up as a victim; it was to prevent this that I threw obstacles in your way for such a long time here. So depart; may you prosper!" When the Vetala had said this, he went out of that human corpse, that was on the king's shoulder.

Then the king was led by the speech of the Vetala, who was pleased with him, to look upon the ascetic Kshantisila as his enemy, but he went to him in high spirits, where he sat under that banyan-tree, and took with him that human corpse.

CHAPTER XCIX.

(Vetala 25.)

Then king Trivikramasena came up to that mendicant Kshantisila, carrying that corpse on his shoulder. And he saw that ascetic, alone at the foot of a tree, in the cemetery that was terrible with a night of the black fortnight, eagerly awaiting his arrival. He was in a circle made with the yellow powder of bones, the ground within which was smeared with blood, and which had pitchers full of blood placed in the direction of the cardinal points. [412] It was richly illuminated with candles of human fat, [413] and near it was a fire fed with oblations, it was full of all the necessary preparations for a sacrifice, and in it the ascetic was engaged in wors.h.i.+pping his favourite deity.

So the king came up to him, and the mendicant, seeing that he had brought the corpse, rose up delighted, and said, praising him; "Great king, you have conferred on me a favour difficult to accomplish. To think that one like you should undertake this enterprise in such a place and at such a time! Indeed they say with truth that you are the best of all n.o.ble kings, being a man of unbending courage, [414]

since you forward the interests of another with such utter disregard of self. And wise men say that the greatness of great ones consists in this very thing, that they swerve not from what they have engaged to do, even though their lives are in danger."

With these words the mendicant, thinking he had gained his end, took the corpse down from the shoulder of that king. And he bathed it, and anointed it, and threw a garland round it, and placed it within that circle. And he smeared his limbs with ashes, and put on a sacrificial thread of hair, and clothed himself in the garments of the dead, and thus equipped he continued for a time in meditation. Then the mendicant summoned that mighty Vetala by the power of spells, and made him enter the corpse; and proceeded to wors.h.i.+p him. He offered to him an argha of white human teeth in a skull by way of an argha-vessel; and he presented to him flowers and fragrant unguents; and he gratified him with the savoury reek of human eyes, [415] and made an offering to him of human flesh. And when he had finished his wors.h.i.+p, he said to the king, who was at his side, "King, fall on the ground, and do obeisance with all your eight limbs to this high sovereign of spells who has appeared here, in order that this bestower of boons may grant you the accomplishment of your heart's desire."

When the king heard that, he called to mind the words of the Vetala, and said to the mendicant, "I do not know how to do it, reverend sir; do you shew me first, and then I will do exactly as you." Then the mendicant threw himself on the ground, to shew the king what he was to do, and then the king cut off his head with a stroke of his sword. And he tore and dragged [416] the lotus of his heart out of his inside, and offered his heart and head as two lotuses to that Vetala.

Then the delighted hosts of goblins uttered shouts of applause on every side, and the Vetala said to the king from inside the corpse, "King, the sovereignty of the Vidyadharas, which this mendicant was aiming at, shall fall to your lot after you have finished the enjoyment of your earthly sway. Since I have given you much annoyance, choose whatever boon you desire." When the Vetala said this, the king said to him, "Since you are pleased with me, every boon that I could desire is obtained; nevertheless, as your words cannot be uttered in vain, I crave this boon of you:--may these first twenty-four questions and answers, charming with their various tales, and this conclusion, the twenty-fifth of the series, be all famous and honoured on the earth!" When the king made this request to the Vetala, the latter replied, "So be it! and now listen, king; I am going to mention a peculiar excellence which it shall possess. This string of tales, consisting of the twenty-four first, and this final concluding tale, shall become, under the t.i.tle of the Twenty-five Tales of a Vampire, famous and honoured on the earth, as conducing to prosperity! Whosoever shall read respectfully even a sloka of it, or whosoever shall hear it read, even they two shall immediately be freed from their curse. And Yakshas, and Vetalas, and Kushmandas, and witches, and Rakshasas, and other creatures of the kind shall have no power where this shall be recited." When the Vetala had said this, he left that human corpse, and went by his supernatural deluding power to the habitation he desired.

Then Siva, being pleased, appeared, accompanied by all the G.o.ds, to that king, visibly manifest, and said to him, as he bowed before him; "Bravo! my son, for that thou hast to-day slain this hypocritical ascetic, who was so ardently in love with the imperial sovereignty over the Vidyadharas! I originally created thee out of a portion of myself, as Vikramaditya, in order that thou mightest destroy the Asuras, that had become incarnate in the form of Mlechchhas. And now thou hast again been created by me as a heroic king of the name of Trivikramasena, in order that thou mightest overcome an audacious evildoer. So thou shalt bring under thy sway the earth with the islands and the realms below, and shalt soon become supreme ruler over the Vidyadharas. And after thou hast long enjoyed heavenly pleasures, thou shalt become melancholy, and shalt of thy own will abandon them, and shalt at last without fail be united with me. Now receive from me this sword named Invincible, by means of which thou shalt duly obtain all this." When the G.o.d Siva had said this to the king, he gave him that splendid sword, and disappeared after he had been wors.h.i.+pped by him with devout speeches and flowers. Then king Trivikramasena, seeing that the whole business was finished, and as the night had come to an end, entered his own city Pratishthana. There he was honoured by his rejoicing subjects, who in course of time came to hear of his exploits during the night, and he spent the whole of that day in bathing, giving gifts, in wors.h.i.+pping Siva, in dancing, singing, music, and other enjoyments of the kind. And in a few days that king, by the power of the sword of Siva, came to enjoy the earth, that was cleared of all enemies, together with the islands and the lower regions; and then by the appointment of Siva he obtained the high imperial sovereignty over the Vidyadharas, and after enjoying it long, at last became united with the blessed one, so attaining all his ends.

(Here ends the Vetalapanchavinsati.)

When [417] that minister Vikramakesarin, meeting in the way the successful [418] prince Mrigankadatta, after he had been long separated from him by a curse, had told him all this, he went on to say to him, "So, prince, after that old Brahman had told me in that village this story, called the Twenty-five Tales of a Vampire, he went on to say to me, 'Well, my son, did not that heroic king Trivikramasena obtain from the favour of a Vetala the thing that he desired? So do you also receive from me this spell, and laying aside your state of despondency, win over a chief among the Vetalas, in order that you may obtain reunion with prince Mrigankadatta. For nothing is unattainable by those who possess endurance; who, my son, will not fail, if he allows his endurance to break down? So do what I recommend you to do out of affection; for you kindly delivered me from the pain of the bite of a poisonous serpent.' When the Brahman said this, I received from him the spell with the practice to be employed with it, and then, king, I took leave of him, and went to Ujjayini. There I got hold of a corpse in the cemetery at night, and I washed it, and performed all the other necessary processes with regard to it, and I summoned a Vetala into it by means of that spell, and duly wors.h.i.+pped him. And to satisfy his hunger, I gave him human flesh to eat; and being greedy for the flesh of men, he ate that up quickly, and then said to me; 'I am not satisfied with this; give me some more.' And as he would not wait any time, I cut off my own flesh, [419] and gave it to him to please him: and that made that prince of magicians exceedingly pleased with me. Then he said to me, 'My friend, I am much pleased now with this intrepid valour of thine, so become whole in thy limbs as thou wast before, and crave from me whatever boon thou desirest.' When the Vetala said this to me, I answered him then and there: 'Convey me, G.o.d, to that place where my master Mrigankadatta is; there is no other boon which I desire more than this.' Then the mighty Vetala said to me; 'Then quickly get up on my shoulder, that I may carry thee rapidly to that master of thine.' When the Vetala said this, I consented, and eagerly climbed up on his shoulder, and then the Vetala, that was inside that human corpse, rapidly set out through the air, carrying me with him. And he has brought me here to-day, king, and when that mighty Vetala saw you on the way, he brought me down from the air, and thus I have been made to reach the sole of your foot. And I have to-day been reunited with my master, and the Vetala has departed, having accomplished what was required of him. This, O bestower of honour, [420] is my great adventure, since I was separated from you by the curse of the Naga."