Book XII.
Chapter
LXVIII.
May Gaṇeśa
protect you, who, when he sports, throws up his trunk, round which plays a
continual swarm of bees, like a triumphal pillar covered with letters, erected
on account of the overthrow of obstacles!
We worship
Śiva, who, though free from the hue of passion, abounds in colours, the skilful
painter who is ever producing new and wonderful creations. Victorious are the
arrows of the god of love, for, when they descend, though they are made of
flowers, the thunderbolt and other weapons are blunted in the hands of those
who bear them.
So the son
of the king of Vatsa remained in Kauśámbí, having obtained wife after wife. But
though he had so many wives, he ever cherished the head queen Madanamanchuká
more than his own life, as Kṛishṇa cherishes Rukmiṇí. But one night he saw in a
dream that a heavenly maiden came and carried him off. And when he awoke, he
found himself on a slab of the tárkshya gem, on the plateau of a great hill, a
place full of shady trees. And he saw that maiden near him, illuminating the
wood, though it was night, like a herb used by the god of love for bewildering
the world. He thought that she had brought him there, and he perceived that
modesty made her conceal her real feelings; so the cunning prince pretended to
be asleep, and in order to test her, he said, as if talking in his sleep,
“Where are you, my dear Madanamanchuká? Come and embrace me.” When she heard
it, she profited by his suggestion, and assumed the form of his wife, and
embraced him without the restraint of modesty. Then he opened his eyes, and
beholding her in the form of his wife, he said, “O how intelligent you are!”
and smiling threw his arms round her neck. Then she dismissed all shame, and
exhibiting herself in her real shape, she said—“Receive, my husband, this
maiden, who chooses you for her own.” And when she said that, he married her by
the Gándharva form of marriage.
But next
morning he said to her, by way of an artifice to discover her lineage, about
which he felt curious; “Listen, my dear, I will tell you a wonderful story.”
Story of
the jackal that was turned into an elephant.
There lived
in a certain wood of ascetics a hermit, named Brahmasiddhi, who possessed by
meditation supernatural power, and near his hermitage there was an old female
jackal dwelling in a cave. One day it was going out to find food, having been
unable to find any for some time on account of bad weather, when a male
elephant, furious on account of its separation from its female, rushed towards
it to kill it. When the hermit saw that, being compassionate as well as endowed
with magical power, he turned the female jackal into a female elephant, by way
of a kindness, to please both. Then the male elephant, beholding a female,
ceased to be furious, and became attached to her, and so she escaped death.
Then, as he was roaming about with the jackal transformed into a female
elephant, he entered a tank full of the mud produced by the autumn rains, to
crop a lotus. He sank in the mud there, and could not move, but remained
motionless, like a mountain that has fallen owing to its wings having been cut
off by the thunderbolt. When the female elephant, that was before a jackal, saw
the male in this distress, she went off that moment and followed another male
elephant. Then it happened that the elephant’s own mate, that he had lost, came
that way in search of her spouse. The noble creature, seeing her husband
sinking in the mud, entered the mud of the tank in order to join him. At that
moment the hermit Brahmasiddhi came that way with his disciples, and was moved
with pity when he saw that pair. And he bestowed by his power great strength on
his disciples, and made them extricate the male and female from the mud. Then
the hermit went away, and that couple of elephants, having been delivered both
from separation and death, roamed where they would.
“So you
see, my dear, that even animals, if they are of a noble strain, do not desert a
lord or friend in calamity, but rescue him from it. But as for those which are
of low origin, they are of fickle nature, and their hearts are never moved by
noble feelings or affection.” When the prince of Vatsa said this, the heavenly
maiden said to him—“It is so, there can be no doubt about this. But I know what
your real object is in telling me this tale; so in return, my husband, hear
this tale from me.”
Story of
Vámadatta and his wicked wife.
There was
an excellent Bráhman in Kányakubja, named Śúradatta, possessor of a hundred
villages, respected by the king Báhuśakti. And he had a devoted wife, named
Vasumatí, and by her he begot a handsome son, named Vámadatta. Vámadatta, the
darling of his father, was instructed in all the sciences, and soon married a
wife, of the name of Śaśiprabhá. In course of time his father went to heaven,
and his wife followed him, and the son undertook with his wife the duties of a
householder. But without his knowledge his wife was addicted to following her
lusts, and by some chance or other she became a witch possessed of magical
powers.
One day,
when the Bráhman was in the king’s camp, engaged in his service, his paternal
uncle came and said to him in secret, “Nephew, our family is disgraced, for I
have seen your wife in the company of your cowherd.” When Vámadatta heard this,
he left his uncle in the camp in his stead, and went, with his sword for his
only companion, back to his own house. He went into the flower-garden and
remained there in concealment, and in the night the cowherd came there. And
immediately his wife came eagerly to meet her paramour, with all kinds of food
in her hand. After he had eaten, she went off to bed with him, and then
Vámadatta rushed upon them with uplifted sword, exclaiming, “Wretches, where
are you going?” When he said that, his wife rose up and said, “Away fool,” and
threw some dust in his face. Then Vámadatta was immediately changed from a man
into a buffalo, but in his new condition he still retained his memory. Then his
wicked wife put him among the buffaloes, and made the herdsman beat him with
sticks.
And the
cruel woman immediately sold him in his helpless bestial condition to a trader,
who required a buffalo. The trader put a load upon the man, who found his
transformation to a buffalo a sore trial, and took him to a village near the
Ganges. He reflected, “A wife of very bad character that enters unsuspected the
house of a confiding man, is never likely to bring him prosperity, any more
than a snake which gets into the female apartments.” While full of these
thoughts, he was sorrowful, with tears gushing from his eyes, moreover he was
reduced to skin and bone by the fatigue of carrying burdens, and in this state
he was beheld by a certain white witch. She knew by her magic power the whole
transaction, and sprinkling him with some charmed water, she released him from
his buffalo condition. And when he had returned to human form, she took him to
her own house, and gave him her virgin daughter named Kántimatí. And she gave
him some charmed mustard-seeds, and said to him; “Sprinkle your wicked former
wife with these, and turn her into a mare.” Then Vámadatta, taking with him his
new wife, went with the charmed mustard-seeds to his own house. Then he killed
the herdsman, and with the mustard-seeds he turned his former wife into a mare,
and tied her up in the stable. And in order to revenge himself, he made it a
rule to give her every day seven blows with a stick, before he took any food.
One day,
while he was living there in this way with Kántimatí, a guest came to his
house. The guest had just sat down to his meal, when suddenly Vámadatta got up
and rushed quickly out of the room without eating anything, because he
recollected that he had not beaten his wicked wife with a stick that day. And
after he had given his wife, in the form of a mare, the appointed number of
blows, he came in with his mind easy, and took his food. Then the guest, being
astonished, asked him, out of curiosity, where he had gone in such a hurry,
leaving his food. Thereupon Vámadatta told him his whole story from the
beginning, and his guest said to him, “What is the use of this persistent
revenge? Petition that mother-in-law of yours, who first released you from your
animal condition, and gain some advantage for yourself.” When the guest gave
this advice to Vámadatta, he approved it, and the next morning dismissed him
with the usual attentions.
Then that
witch, his mother-in-law, suddenly paid him a visit, and he supplicated her
persistently to grant him a boon. The powerful witch instructed him and his
wife in the method of gaining the life-prolonging charm, with the proper
initiatory rites. So he went to the mountain of Śrí and set about obtaining
that charm, and the charm, when obtained, appeared to him in visible shape, and
gave him a splendid sword. And when the successful Vámadatta had obtained the
sword, he and his wife Kántimatí became glorious Vidyádharas. Then he built by
his magic power a splendid city on a peak of the Malaya mountain, named
Rajatakúṭa. There, in time, that prince among the Vidyádharas had born to him
by his queen an auspicious daughter, named Lalitalochaná. And the moment she
was born, she was declared by a voice, that came from heaven, to be destined to
be the wife of the future emperor of the Vidyádharas.
“Know, my
husband, that I am that very Lalitalochaná, and that knowing the facts by my
science and being in love with you, I have brought you to this very Malaya
mountain, which is my own home.” When she had in these words told him her
story, Naraváhanadatta was much pleased, and entertained great respect for his
new wife. And he remained there with her, and immediately the king of Vatsa and
his entourage learnt the truth, by means of the supernatural knowledge of
Ratnaprabhá, and the other wives of Naraváhanadatta that possessed the same
powers.
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