The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 73

Thinking that there was some reason for this, [632] the king called together all the Brahmans in the city of Ujjayini, and telling them the whole story, said to them, "So you must eat here in the house of the Matanga Utpalahasta, eighteen thousand of you; I will not have it otherwise." When the Brahmans had been thus commanded by the king, being at the same time afraid of touching the food of a Chandala, and therefore at a loss what to do, they went to the shrine of Mahakala and performed self-torture. Then the G.o.d Siva, who was present there in the form of Mahakala, commanded those Brahmans in a dream, saying, "Eat food here in the house of the Matanga Utpalahasta, for he is a Vidyadhara; neither he nor his family are Chandalas." Then those Brahmans rose up and went to the king, and told him the dream, and went on to say, "So let this Utpalahasta cook pure food for us in some place outside the quarter of the Chandalas, and then we will eat it at his hands." When the king heard this, he had another house made for Utpalahasta, and being highly delighted, he had food cooked for him there by pure cooks: and then eighteen thousand Brahmans ate there, while Utpalahasta stood in front of them, bathed, and clothed in a pure garment.

And after they had eaten, Utpalahasta came to king Palaka, in the presence of his subjects, and bowing before him, said to him, "There was an influential prince of the Vidyadharas, named Gaurimunda; I was a dependent of his, named Matangadeva; and when, king, that daughter of mine Suratamanjari had been born, Gaurimunda secretly said to me, 'The G.o.ds a.s.sert that this son of the king of Vatsa, who is called Naravahanadatta, is to be our emperor: so go quickly, and kill that foe of ours by means of your magic power, before be has attained the dignity of emperor.'

"When the wicked Gaurimunda had sent me on this errand, I went to execute it, and while going along through the air, I saw Siva in front of me. The G.o.d, being displeased, made an angry roar, and immediately p.r.o.nounced on me this curse, 'How is it, villain, that thou dost plot evil against a n.o.ble-minded man? So go, wicked one, and fall with this same body of thine into the midst of the Chandalas in Ujjayini, together with thy wife and daughter. And when some one shall make eighteen thousand of the Brahmans, that dwell in that city, eat in thy house by way of a gift to purchase thy daughter; then thy curse shall come to an end, and thou must marry thy daughter to the man who bestows on thee that gift.'

"When Siva had said this, he disappeared, and I, that very Matangadeva, a.s.suming the name of Utpalahasta, fell among men of the lowest caste, but I do not mix with them. However, my curse is now at an end, owing to the favour of your son, so I give him my daughter Suratamanjari. And now I will go to my own dwelling-place among the Vidyadharas, in order to pay my respects to the emperor Naravahanadatta." When Matangadeva had said this, he solemnly gave the prince his daughter, and flying up into the air with his wife, repaired, king, to thy feet.

"And king Palaka, having thus ascertained the truth, celebrated with great delight the marriage of Suratamanjari and his son. And his son Avantivardhana, having obtained that Vidyadhari for a wife, felt himself fortunate in having gained more than he had ever hoped for.

"Now, one day, that prince went to sleep on the top of the palace with her and at the end of the night he woke up, and suddenly discovered that his beloved was nowhere to be seen. He looked for her, but could not find her anywhere, and then he lamented, and was so much afflicted that his father the king came, and was exceedingly discomposed. We all, being a.s.sembled there at that time, said, 'This city is well-guarded, no stranger could enter it during the night; no doubt she must have been carried off by some evilly disposed wanderer of the air;' and even while we were saying that, your servant the Vidyadhara Dhumasikha descended from the sky. He brought here this prince Avantivardhana, and king Palaka also was asked to part with me, in order that I might state the facts of the case. Here too is Suratamanjari with her father, and the facts concerning her are such as I have said: your Majesty is the best judge of what ought to be done now."

When Bharataroha the minister of Palaka had told this tale, he stopped speaking; and the a.s.sessors put this question to Matangadeva in the presence of Naravahanadatta, "Tell us, to whom did you give this daughter of yours Suratamanjari?" He answered, "I gave her to Avantivardhana." Then they put this question to Ityaka, "Now do you tell us why you carried her off?" He answered, "Her mother promised her to me originally." The a.s.sessors said to Ityaka, "While the father is alive, what authority has the mother? Moreover, where is your witness to prove the fact of the mother having promised her to you? So she is with regard to you the wife of another, villain!" When Ityaka was thus put to silence by the a.s.sessors, the emperor Naravahanadatta, being angry with him, ordered his immediate execution on the ground of his misconduct. But the good hermits, with Kasyapa at their head, came and entreated him, saying, "Forgive now this one fault of his: for he is the son of Madanavega, and therefore your brother-in-law." So the king was at last induced to spare his life, and let him off with a severe reprimand.

And he reunited that son of his maternal uncle, Avantivardhana, to his wife, and sent them off with their ministers to their own city, in the care of Vayupatha.

CHAPTER CXIII.

When Naravahanadatta on the Black Mountain had thus taken away the virtuous Suratamanjari from his brother-in-law Ityaka, who had carried her off, and had reprimanded him, and had given her back to her husband, and was sitting in the midst of the hermits, the sage Kasyapa came and said to him, "There never was, king, and there never will be an emperor like you, since you do not allow pa.s.sion and other feelings of the kind to influence your mind, when you are sitting on the seat of judgment. Fortunate are they who ever behold such a righteous lord as you are; for, though your empire is such as it is, no fault can be found with you.

"There were in former days Rishabha and other emperors; and they, being seized with various faults, were ruined and fell from their high estate. Rishabha, and Sarvadamana, and the third Bandhujivaka, all these, through excessive pride, were punished by Indra. And the Vidyadhara prince Jimutavahana, when the sage Narada came and asked him the reason of his obtaining the rank of emperor, told him how he gave away the wis.h.i.+ng-tree and his own body, [633] and thus he fell from his high position by revealing his own virtuous deeds. And the sovereign named Visvantara, who was emperor here, he too, when his son Indivaraksha had been slain by Vasantatilaka, the king of Chedi, for seducing his wife, being wanting in self-control, died on account of the distracting sorrow which he felt for the death of his wicked son.

"But Taravaloka alone, who was by birth a mighty human king, and obtained by his virtuous deeds the imperial sovereignty over the Vidyadharas, long enjoyed the high fortune of empire without falling into sin, and at last abandoned it of his own accord, out of distaste for all worldly pleasures, and went to the forest. Thus in old times did most of the Vidyadhara emperors, puffed up with the attainment of their high rank, abandon the right path, and fall, blinded with pa.s.sion. So you must always be on your guard against slipping from the path of virtue, and you must take care that your Vidyadhara subjects do not swerve from righteousness."

When the hermit Kasyapa said this to Naravahanadatta, the latter approved his speech, and said to him with deferential courtesy, "How did Taravaloka, being a man, obtain in old time the sway over the Vidyadharas? Tell me, reverend Sir." When Kasyapa heard this, he said, "Listen, I will tell you his story."

Story of Taravaloka.

There lived among the Sivis [634] a king of the name of Chandravaloka; that sovereign had a head-wife named Chandralekha. Her race was as spotless as the sea of milk, she was pure herself, and in character like the Ganges. And he had a great elephant that trampled the armies of his enemies, known on the earth as Kuvalayapida. Owing to the might of that elephant, the king was never conquered by any enemy in his realm, in which the real power was in the hands of the subjects.

And when his youth came to an end, that king had a son, with auspicious marks, born to him by his queen Chandralekha. He gave the son the name of Taravaloka, and he gradually grew up, and his inborn virtues of liberality, self-control, and discernment grew with him. And the mighty-minded youth learnt the meaning of all words except one; but he was so liberal to suppliants that he cannot be said ever to have learnt the meaning of the word "No." Gradually he became old in actions, though young in years; and though like the sun in fire of valour, he was exceedingly pleasing to look at; [635] like the full moon, he became beautiful by the possession of all n.o.ble parts; like the G.o.d of Love, he excited the longing of the whole world; in obedience to his father he came to surpa.s.s Jimutavahana, and he was distinctly marked with the signs of a great emperor.

Then his father, the king Chandravaloka, brought for that son of his the daughter of the king of the Madras, named Madri. And when he was married, his father, pleased with the supereminence of his virtues, at once appointed him Crown-prince. And when Taravaloka had been appointed Crown-prince, he had made, with his father's permission, alms-houses for the distribution of food and other necessaries. And every day, the moment he got up, he mounted the elephant Kuvalayapida, and went round to inspect those alms-houses. [636] To whosoever asked anything he was ready to give it, even if it were his own life: in this way the fame of that Crown-prince spread in every quarter.

Then he had two twin sons born to him by Madri, and the father called them Rama and Lakshmana. And the boys grew like the love and joy of their parents, and they were dearer than life to their grandparents. And Taravaloka and Madri were never tired of looking at them, as they bent before them, being filled with virtue, like two bows of the prince, being strung. [637]

Then the enemies of Taravaloka, seeing his elephant Kuvalayapida, his two sons, and his reputation for generosity, said to their Brahmans, "Go and ask Taravaloka to give you his elephant Kuvalayapida. If he gives it you, we shall be able to take from him his kingdom, as he will be deprived of that bulwark; if he refuses to give it, his reputation for generosity will be at an end." When the Brahmans had been thus entreated, they consented, and asked Taravaloka, that hero of generosity, for that elephant. Taravaloka said to himself, "What do Brahmans mean by asking for a mighty elephant? So I know for certain that they have been put up to asking me by some one. Happen what will, I must give them my splendid elephant, for how can I let a suppliant go away without obtaining his desire, while I live?" After going through these reflections, Taravaloka gave the elephant to those Brahmans with unwavering mind.

Then Chandravaloka's subjects, seeing that splendid elephant being led away by those Brahmans, went in a rage to the king, and said, "Your son has now abandoned this kingdom, and surrendering all his rights has taken upon him the vow of a hermit. For observe, he has given to some suppliants this great elephant Kuvalayapida, the foundation of the kingdom's prosperity, that scatters with its mere smell all other elephants. So you must either send your son to the forest to practise asceticism, or take back the elephant, or else we will set up another king in your place." [638]

When Chandravaloka had been thus addressed by the citizens, he sent his son a message in accordance with their demands through the warder. When his son Taravaloka heard that, he said, "As for the elephant, I have given it away, and it is my principle to refuse nothing to suppliants; but what do I care for such a throne as this, which is under the thumb of the subjects, or for a royal dignity which does not benefit others, [639] and anyhow is transient as the lightning? So it is better for me to live in the forest, among trees which give the fortune of their fruits to be enjoyed by all, and not here among such beasts of men as these subjects are." [640] When Taravaloka had said this, he a.s.sumed the dress of bark, and after kissing the feet of his parents and giving away all his wealth to suppliants, he went out from his own city, accompanied by his wife, who was firm in the same resolution as himself, and his two children, comforting, as well as he could, the weeping Brahmans. Even beasts and birds, when they saw him setting forth, wept so piteously that the earth was bedewed with their rain of tears.

Then Taravaloka went on his way, with no possessions but a chariot and horses for the conveyance of his children; but some other Brahmans asked him for the horses belonging to the chariot; he gave them to them immediately, and drew the chariot himself, with the a.s.sistance of his wife to convey those tender young sons to the forest. Then, as he was wearied out in the middle of the forest, another Brahman came up to him, and asked him for his horseless chariot. He gave it to him without the slightest hesitation, and the resolute fellow, going along on his feet, with his wife and sons, at last with difficulty reached the grove of mortification. There he took up his abode at the foot of a tree, and lived with deer for his only retinue, n.o.bly waited on by his wife Madri. And the forest regions ministered to the heroic prince, while living in this kingdom of devotion; their cl.u.s.ters of flowers waving in the wind were his beautiful chowries, broad-shaded trees were his umbrellas, leaves his bed, rocks his thrones, bees his singing-women, and various fruits his savoury viands.

Now, one day, his wife Madri left the hermitage to gather fruits and flowers for him with her own hands, and a certain old Brahman came and asked Taravaloka, who was in his hut, for his sons Rama and Lakshmana. Taravaloka said to himself, "I shall be better able to endure letting these sons of mine, though they are quite infants, be led away, [641] than I could possibly manage to endure the sending a suppliant away disappointed: the fact is, cunning fate is eager to see my resolution give way": then he gave those sons to the Brahman. And when the Brahman tried to take them away, they refused to go; then he tied their hands and beat them with creepers; and as the cruel man took them away, they kept crying for their mother, and turning round and looking at their father with tearful eyes. Even when Taravaloka saw that, he was unmoved, but the whole world of animate and inanimate existences was moved at his fort.i.tude.

Then the virtuous Madri slowly returned tired from a remote part of the forest to her husband's hermitage, bringing with her flowers, fruits and roots. And she saw her husband, who had his face sadly fixed on the ground, but she could not see anywhere those sons of hers, though their toys, in the form of horses, chariots, and elephants of clay, were scattered about. Her heart foreboded calamity, and she said excitedly to her husband "Alas! I am ruined! Where are my little sons?" Her husband slowly answered her, "Blameless one, I gave those two little sons away to a poor Brahman, who asked for them." When the good lady heard that, she rose superior to her distraction, and said to her husband, "Then you did well: how could you allow a suppliant to go away disappointed?" When she said this, the equally matched goodness of that married couple made the earth tremble, and the throne of Indra rock.

Then Indra saw by his profound meditation that the world was made to tremble by virtue of the heroic generosity of Madri and Taravaloka. Then he a.s.sumed the form of a Brahman, and went to Taravaloka's hermitage, to prove him, and asked him for his only wife Madri. And Taravaloka was preparing to give without hesitation, by the ceremony of pouring water over the hands, [642] that lady who had been his companion in the wild forest, when Indra, thus disguised as a Brahman, said to him, "Royal sage, what object do you mean to attain by giving away a wife like this?" Then Taravaloka said, "I have no object in view, Brahman; so much only do I desire, that I may ever give away to Brahmans even my life." When Indra heard this, he resumed his proper shape, and said to him, "I have made proof of thee, and I am satisfied with thee; so I say to thee, thou must not again give away thy wife; and soon thou shalt be made emperor over all the Vidyadharas." When the G.o.d had said this, he disappeared.

In the meanwhile that old Brahman took with him those sons of Taravaloka, whom he had received as a Brahman's fee, and losing his way, arrived, as Fate would have it, at the city of that king Chandravaloka, and proceeded to sell those princes in the market. Then the citizens recognised those two boys, and went and informed king Chandravaloka, and took them with the Brahman into his presence. The king, when he saw his grandsons, shed tears, and after he had questioned the Brahman, and had heard the state of the case from him, he was for a long time divided between joy and grief. Then, perceiving the exceeding virtue of his son, he at once ceased to care about a kingdom, though his subjects entreated him to remain, but with his wealth he bought those two grandsons from the Brahman, and taking them with him, went with his retinue to the hermitage of his son Taravaloka.

There he saw him with matted hair, wearing a dress of bark, looking like a great tree, the advantages of which are enjoyed by birds coming from every quarter, for he in like manner had bestowed all he had upon expectant Brahmans. [643] That son ran towards him, while still a long way off, and fell at his feet, and his father bedewed him with tears, and took him up on his lap; and thus gave him a foretaste of his ascent of the throne, as emperor over the Vidyadharas, after the solemn sprinkling with water.

Then the king gave back to Taravaloka his sons Rama and Lakshmana, saying that he had purchased them, and while they were relating to one another their adventures, an elephant with four tusks and the G.o.ddess Lakshmi descended from heaven. And when the chiefs of the Vidyadharas had also descended, Lakshmi, lotus in hand, said to that Taravaloka, "Mount this elephant, and come to the country of the Vidyadharas, and there enjoy the imperial dignity [644] earned by your great generosity."

When Lakshmi said this, Taravaloka, after bowing at the feet of his father, mounted that celestial elephant, with her, and his wife, and his sons, in the sight of all the inhabitants of the hermitage, and surrounded by the kings of the Vidyadharas went through the air to their domain. There the distinctive sciences of the Vidyadharas repaired to him, and he long enjoyed supreme sway, but at last becoming disgusted with all worldly pleasures, he retired to a forest of ascetics.

"Thus Taravaloka, though a man, acquired in old time by his deeds of spotless virtue the sovereignty of all the Vidyadharas. But others, after acquiring it, lost it by their offences: so be on your guard against unrighteous conduct either on your own part or on that of another." [645]

When the hermit Kasyapa had told this story, and had thus admonished Naravahanadatta, that emperor promised to follow his advice. And he had a royal proclamation made all round the mountain of Siva, to the following effect, "Listen, Vidyadharas; whoever of my subjects after this commits an unrighteous act, will certainly be put to death by me." The Vidyadharas received his commands with implicit submission, and his glory was widely diffused on account of his causing Suratamanjari to be set at liberty; and so he lived with his retinue in the hermitage of that excellent sage, on the Black Mountain, [646]

in the society of his maternal uncle, and in this manner spent the rainy season.

BOOK XVII.

CHAPTER CXIV.

Glory to Siva, who a.s.sumes various forms; who, though his beloved takes up half his body, [647] is an ascetic, free from qualities, the due object of a world's adoration! We wors.h.i.+p Ganesa, who, when fanning away the cloud of bees, that flies up from his trunk, with his flapping ears, seems to be dispersing the host of obstacles.

Thus Naravahanadatta, who had been established in the position of lord paramount over all the kings of the Vidyadharas, remained on that Black Mountain in order to get through the rainy season, spending the time in the hermitage of that sage Kasyapa, and in the society of his maternal uncle Gopalaka, who was living the life of an ascetic. He was accompanied by his ministers, and surrounded by twenty-five of his wives, and attended by various Vidyadhara princes, and he occupied himself in telling tales. One day, the hermits and his wives said to him, "Tell us now! When Manasavega took away queen Madanamanchuka by his magic power, who amused you impatient of separation, and how did he do it?"

When Naravahanadatta had been asked this question by those hermits and by his wives, he proceeded to speak as follows; "Can I tell now how great grief I endured, when I found out that that wicked enemy had carried off my queen? There was no building, and no garden, or room, into which I did not roam seeking for her in my grief, and all my ministers with me. Then I sat down, as if beside myself, in a garden at the foot of a tree, and Gomukha, having obtained his opportunity, said to me, in order to console me, 'Do not be despondent, my sovereign; you will soon recover the queen; for the G.o.ds promised that you should rule the Vidyadharas with her as your consort; that must turn out as the G.o.ds predicted, for their promises are never falsified; and resolute men, after enduring separation, obtain reunion with those they love. Were not Ramabhadra, king Nala, and your own grandfather, [648] after enduring separation, reunited to their beloved wives? And was not Muktaphalaketu, emperor of the Vidyadharas, reunited to Padmavati, after he had been separated from her? And now listen, king; I will tell you the story of that couple.' When Gomukha had said this, he told me the following tale."

Story of king Brahmadatta and the Swans. [649]

There is in this country a city famous over the earth by the name of Varanasi, which, like the body of Siva, is adorned with the Ganges, and bestows emanc.i.p.ation. With the flags on its temples swayed up and down by the wind, it seems to be ever saying to men "Come hither, and attain salvation." With the pinnacles of its white palaces it looks like the plateau of mount Kailasa, the habitation of the G.o.d with the moon for a diadem, and it is full of troops of Siva's devoted servants. [650]

In that city there lived of old time a king named Brahmadatta, [651]

exclusively devoted to Siva, a patron of Brahmans, brave, generous, and compa.s.sionate. His commands pa.s.sed current through the earth, they stumbled not in rocky defiles, they were not whelmed in seas, there were no continents which they did not cross. He had a queen named Somaprabha, [652] who was dear and delightful to him as the moonlight to the chakora, and he was as eager to drink her in with his eyes. And he had a Brahman minister named Sivabhuti, equal to Vrihaspati in intellect, who had fathomed the meaning of all the Sastras.