Chapter
LXXXV
(Vetála)
Then king
Trivikramasena again went and took that Vetála from the aśoka-tree and put him
on his shoulder, and set out with him; and as he was going along, the Vetála on
his shoulder said to him; “Listen, king; I will tell you an interesting story.”
Story of
king Dharmadhvaja and his three very sensitive wives
There lived
of old in Ujjayiní a king of the name of Dharmadhvaja, he had three wives, who
were all daughters of kings, and whom he held very dear. The first of them was
called Indulekhá, the second Tárávalí, and the third Mṛigánkavatí; and they
were all possessed of extraordinary personal charms. And the successful king,
who had conquered all his enemies, lived happily, amusing himself with all
those three queens.
Once on a
time, when the festival of the spring-season had arrived, he went with all
those three wives to the garden to amuse himself. There he beheld the creepers
weighed down with flowers, looking like Cupid’s bows, with rows of bees for
strings, strung for him by the Spring. And the king, who resembled the mighty
Indra, hearing the notes which the cuckoos uttered on the sprays of the
garden-trees, like the edict of Love, the god of enjoyment, betook himself with
his wives to wine, which is the very life of that intoxication, by which Cupid
lives. And he joyed in drinking the liquor first tasted by them, perfumed with
their sighs, red as their bimba lips.
Then, as
Indulekhá was playfully pulling the hair of the king, a blue lotus leaped from
her ear, and fell on her lap. Immediately a wound was produced on the front of
her thigh by the blow, and the delicate princess exclaimed “Oh! Oh!” and
fainted. When the king and the attendants saw that, they were distracted with
grief, but they gradually brought her round with cold water and fanning. Then
the king took her to the palace, and had a bandage applied to the wound, and
treated her with preparations made by the physicians.
And at
night, seeing that she was going on well, the king retired with the second,
Tárávalí, to an apartment on the roof of the palace exposed to the rays of the
moon. There the rays of the moon, entering through the lattice, fell on the
body of the queen, who was sleeping by the king’s side, where it was exposed by
her garment blowing aside. Immediately she woke up, exclaiming, “Alas! I am
burnt,” and rose up from the bed rubbing her limbs. The king woke up in a state
of alarm, crying out, “What is the meaning of this?” Then he got up and saw
that blisters had been produced on the queen’s body. And the queen Tárávalí
said to him when he questioned her, “The moon’s rays falling on my exposed body
have done this to me.” When she said this and burst into tears, the king, being
distressed, summoned her attendants, who ran there in trepidation and alarm.
And he had made for her a bed of lotus-leaves, sprinkled with water, and
sandal-wood lotion applied to her body.
In the
meanwhile his third wife Mṛigánkavatí heard of it, and left her palace to come
to him. And when she had got into the open air, she heard distinctly, as the
night was still, the sound of a pestle pounding rice in a distant house. The
moment the gazelle-eyed one heard it, she said, “Alas I am killed,” and she sat
down on the path, shaking her hands in an agony of pain. Then the girl turned
back, and was conducted by her attendants to her own chamber, where she fell on
the bed, and groaned. And when her weeping attendants examined her, they saw
that her hands were covered with bruises, and looked like lotuses upon which
black bees had settled. So they went and told the king. The king Dharmadhvaja
arrived in a state of consternation, and asked his beloved what it all meant.
Then the tortured queen showed him her hands, and said to him, “As soon as I
heard the sound of the pestle, these became covered with bruises.” Then the
king, filled with surprise and despondency, had sandal-wood unguent and other
remedies applied to her hands, in order to allay the pain.
He
reflected, “One of my queens has been wounded by the fall of a lotus, the
second has had her body burned even by the rays of the moon, and alas! the
third has got such terrible bruises produced on her hands by the mere sound of
a pestle. By a dispensation of fate the excessive delicacy, which is the distinguishing
excellence of my queens, has now become in them all, at one and the same time,
a defect.” Engaged in such reflections the king wandered round the women’s
apartments, and the night of three watches passed for him as tediously as if it
had consisted of a hundred watches. But the next morning, the physician and
surgeons took measures, which caused him soon to be comforted by the recovery
of his wives.
When the
Vetála had told this very wonderful story, he put this question to king
Trivikramasena from his seat on his shoulder: “Tell me, king, which was the
most delicate of those queens; and the curse I before mentioned will take
effect, if you know and do not say.”
When the
king heard that, he answered, “The most delicate of all was the lady upon whose
hand bruises were produced by merely hearing the sound of the pestle, without
touching it. But the other two were no match for her, because the wound of the
one and the blisters of the other were produced by contact with the lotus and
the rays of the moon respectively.”
When the
king had said this, the Vetála again left his shoulder, and returned to his own
place, and the persevering king again set out to fetch him.
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