Chapter
LXX.
Accordingly
Mṛigánkadatta, being desirous to obtain Śaśánkavatí the daughter of king
Karmasena, who had been described by the Vetála, planned with his ministers to
leave his city secretly, disguised as a Páśupata ascetic, in order to travel to
Ujjayiní. And the prince himself directed his minister Bhímaparákrama to bring
the necessary staves like bed-posts, the skulls, and so on. And the head
minister of the king his father found out, by means of a spy, that
Bhímaparákrama had collected all these things in his house. And at that time it
happened that Mṛigánkadatta, while walking about on the top of his palace, spit
down some betel-juice. And as ill-luck would have it, it fell on the head of
his father’s minister, who happened to be walking below, unseen by the prince.
But the minister, knowing that Mṛigánkadatta had spit down that betel-juice,
bathed, and laid up in his heart a grudge against Mṛigánkadatta on account of
the insult.
Now it
happened that the next day king Amaradatta, the father of Mṛigánkadatta, had an
attack of cholera, and then the minister saw his chance, and, after imploring
an assurance of safety, he said in secret to the king, who was tortured with
his sudden attack of disease, “The fact is, my sovereign, your son Mṛigánkadatta
has begun incantations against you in the house of Bhímaparákrama, that is why
you are suffering. I found it out by means of a spy, and the thing is obvious
for all to see, so banish your son from your realm and your disease from your
body at the same time.” When the king heard that, he was terrified, and sent
his own general to the house of Bhímaparákrama, to investigate the matter. And
he found the hair, and the skulls, and other articles, and immediately brought
those very things and shewed them to the king. And the king in his anger said to
the general, “That son of mine is conspiring against me, because he wishes to
reign himself, so expel him from the kingdom this very moment without delay,
together with his ministers.” For a confiding king never sees through the
wicked practices of his ministers. So the general went and communicated that
order of the king’s, and expelled Mṛigánkadatta from the city, together with
his ministers.
Then Mṛigánkadatta
was delighted at having obtained his object, and he worshipped Gaṇeśa, and
mentally took a humble leave of his parents, and started off. And after they
had gone a great distance from the town of Ayodhyá, the prince said to Prachaṇḍaśakti
and the other nine ministers who were travelling with him, “There is here a
great king of the Kirátas, named Śaktirakshita; he is a student in the
sciences, observing a vow of chastity, and he is a friend of mine from
childhood. For, when his father was long ago captured in battle, he sent him
here to be imprisoned as a substitute for himself, in order to obtain his own
release. And when his father died, his relations by the father’s side rose
against him, and at my instigation my father established him on the throne of
his father with a military force. So let us go to him, my friends, and then we
will travel on to Ujjayiní, to find that Śaśánkavatí.”
When he
said this, all the ministers exclaimed, “So be it,” and he set out with them
and reached in the evening a great wilderness. It was devoid of trees and
water, and it was with difficulty that at last he found a tank, with one
withered tree growing upon its banks. There he performed the evening
ceremonies, and drank water, and being fatigued, he went to sleep with his
ministers under that dry tree. And in the night, which was illuminated by the
moon, he woke up, and saw that the tree first put forth abundance of leaves,
then of flowers, then of fruit. And when he saw its ripe fruit falling, he
immediately woke up his ministers, and pointed out that marvel to them. Then
they were astonished, and as they were hungry, he and they ate the delicious
fruits of that tree together, and after they had eaten them, the dry tree
suddenly became a young Bráhman, before the eyes of them all. And when Mṛigánkadatta
questioned him, he told his tale in the following words.
Story of
Śrutadhi.
There was
an excellent Bráhman in Ayodhyá named Dámadhi. I am his son, and my name is
Śrutadhi. And once in a time of famine he was wandering about with me, and he
reached this place almost dead. Here he got five fruits which some one gave him,
and though he was exhausted with hunger, he gave three to me, and set aside two
for himself. Then he went into the water of the lake to bathe, and in the
meanwhile I ate all the five fruits, and pretended to be asleep. He returned
after bathing, and beholding me cunningly lying here as motionless as a log, he
cursed me, saving, “Become a dry tree here on the bank of the lake. And on
moonlight nights flowers and fruit shall spring from you, and when once on a
time you shall have refreshed guests with fruits, you shall be delivered from
your curse.” As soon as my father had pronounced this curse on me, I became a
dry tree, but now that you have tasted my fruit, I have been delivered from the
curse, after enduring it for a long time.
After
Śrutadhi had related his own history, he asked Mṛigánkadatta for his, and he
told it him. Then Śrutadhi, who had no relations, and was well-read in policy,
asked Mṛigánkadatta to permit him, as a favour, to attach himself to his
service. So, after he had spent the night in this way, Mṛigánkadatta set out
next morning with his ministers. And in the course of his journey he came to a
forest named Karimaṇḍita. There he saw five wild looking men with long hair,
who aroused his wonder. Then the five men came and respectfully addressed him
as follows:
“We were
born in the city of Káśí as Bráhmans who lived by keeping cows. And during a
famine we came from that country, where the grass was scorched by drought, with
our cows, to this wood which abounds in grass. And here we found an elixir in
the form of the water of a tank, continually flavoured with the three kinds of
fruits that drop from the trees growing on its bank. And five hundred years
have passed over our heads in this uninhabited wood, while we have been
drinking this water and the milk of cows. It is thus, prince, that we have
become such as you see, and now destiny has sent you to us as guests, so come
to our hermitage.”
When thus
invited by them, Mṛigánkadatta went with them to their hermitage, taking his
companions with him, and spent the day there living on milk. And he set out
from it in the morning, and in course of time he reached the country of the
Kirátas, seeing other wonderful sights on the way. And he sent on Śrutadhi to
inform his friend Śaktirakshita, the king of the Kirátas, of his arrival. When
the sovereign of the Kirátas heard of it, he went to meet Mṛigánkadatta with
great courtesy, and conducted him with his ministers into his city. Mṛigánkadatta
told him the cause of his arrival, and remained there for some days, being
entertained by him. And the prince arranged that Śaktirakshita should be ready
to assist him in his undertaking when the proper time came, and then he set
out, on an auspicious day, for Ujjayiní, with his eleven companions, having
been captivated by Śaśánkavatí.
And as he
went along, he reached an uninhabited forest and saw standing under a tree an
ascetic, with ashes on his body, a deer-skin, and matted hair. So he went up to
him, with his followers, and said to him; “Reverend sir, why do you live alone
in this forest in which there is no hermitage?” Then the hermit answered him,
“I am a pupil of the great sage named Śuddhakírti and I know innumerable
spells. Once on a time I got hold of a certain Kshatriya boy with auspicious
marks, and I exerted all my diligence to cause him to be possessed, while
alive, by a spirit, and, when the boy was possessed, I questioned him, and he
told me of many places for potent drugs and liquors, and then said this; ‘There
is in this Vindhya forest in the northern quarter a solitary aśoka-tree, and
under it there is a great palace of a snake-king. In the middle of the day its
water is concealed with moistened dust, but it can be discovered by the couples
of swans sporting there together with the water-cranes. There dwells a mighty
chief of the snakes, named Párávatáksha, and he obtained a matchless sword from
the war of the gods and Asuras, named Vaidúryakánti; whatever man obtains that
sword will become a chief of the Siddhas and roam about unconquered, and that
sword can only be obtained by the aid of heroes.’ When the possessed boy had
said this, I dismissed him. So I have wandered about over the earth desirous to
obtain that sword, and caring for nothing else, but, as I have not been able to
find men to help me, in disgust I have come here to die.” When Mṛigánkadatta
heard the ascetic say this, he said to him, “I and my ministers will help you.”
The ascetic gladly accepted his offer, and went with him and his followers, by
the help of an ointment rubbed on the feet, to the dwelling-place of that
snake. There he found the sign by which it could be recognised, and he placed
there at night Mṛigánkadatta and his companions, duly initiated, fixed with
spells; and throwing enchanted mustard-seed he cleared the water from dust, and
began to offer an oblation with snake-subduing spells. And he conquered by the
power of his spells the impediments, such as earthquakes, clouds, and so on.
Then there came out from that aśoka-tree a heavenly nymph, as it were,
murmuring spells with the tinkling of her jewelled ornaments, and approaching
the ascetic she pierced his soul with a sidelong glance of love. And then the
ascetic lost his self-command and forgot his spells; and the shapely fair one,
embracing him, flung from his hand the vessel of oblation. And then the snake
Párávatáksha had gained his opportunity, and he came out from that palace like
the dense cloud of the day of doom. Then the heavenly nymph vanished, and the
ascetic beholding the snake terrible with flaming eyes, roaring horribly, died
of a broken heart.
When he was
destroyed, the snake laid aside his awful form, and cursed Mṛigánkadatta and
his followers, for helping the ascetic, in the following words, “Since you did
what was quite unnecessary after all coming here with this man, you shall be
for a certain time separated from one another.” Then the snake disappeared, and
all of them at the same time had their eyes dimmed with darkness, and were
deprived of the power of hearing sounds. And they immediately went in different
directions, separated from one another by the power of the curse, though they
kept looking for one another and calling to one another. And when the delusion
of the night was at an end, Mṛigánkadatta found himself roaming about in the
wood without his ministers.
And, after
two or three months had passed, the Bráhman Śrutadhi, who was looking for him,
suddenly fell in with him. Mṛigánkadatta received him kindly, and asked for
news of his ministers, whereupon Śrutadhi fell at his feet weeping, and
consoled him, and said to him, “I have not seen them, prince, but I know they
will go to Ujjayiní, for that is the place we all have to go to.” With these
and similar speeches he urged the prince to go there, so Mṛigánkadatta set out
with him slowly for Ujjayiní.
And after
he had journeyed a few days, he found his own minister Vimalabuddhi who
suddenly came that way. When the minister saw him, he bowed before him with
eyes filled with tears at seeing him, and the prince embraced him, and making
him sit down, he asked him for tidings of the other ministers. Then
Vimalabuddhi said to that prince, who was so beloved by his servants, “I do not
know, king, where each of them has gone in consequence of the curse of the
snake. But hear how I know that you will find them again.”
The
adventures of Vimalabuddhi after he was separated from the prince.
When the
snake cursed me, I was carried far away by the curse, and wandered in the
eastern part of the forest. And being fatigued, I was taken by a certain kind
person to the hermitage of a certain hermit, named Brahmadaṇḍin. There my
fatigue was removed by the fruits and water which the sage gave me, and,
roaming away far from the hermitage, I saw a vast cave. I entered it out of
curiosity, and I saw inside it a palace made of jewels, and I began to look
into the palace through the lattice-windows. And lo! there was in it a woman
causing to revolve a wheel with bees, and those bees made some of them for a
bull, and others for a donkey, both which creatures were standing there. And
some drank the foam of milk sent forth by the bull, and others the foam of
blood sent forth by the donkey, and became white and black, according to the
colour of the two objects on which they settled; and then they all turned into
spiders. And the spiders, which were of two different colours, made two
different-coloured webs with their excrements. And one set of webs was hung on
wholesome flowers, and the other on poisonous flowers. And the spiders, that
were clinging to those webs as they pleased, were bitten by a great snake which
came there, having two mouths, one white, and the other black. Then the woman
put them in various pitchers, but they got out again, and began to occupy the
same webs again respectively. Then those, that were on the webs attached to the
poisonous flowers, began to cry out, owing to the violence of the poison. And
thereupon the others, that were on the other webs, began to cry out also. But
the noise interrupted the meditation of a certain merciful ascetic who was
there, who discharged fire at the webs. Then the webs, in which the spiders
were entangled, were burnt up, and the spiders entered a hollow coral rod, and
disappeared in a gleaming light at the top of it. In the meanwhile the woman
disappeared with her wheel, her bull, and her donkey.
When I had
seen this, I continued to roam about there in a state of astonishment; and then
I saw a charming lake, which seemed by means of its lotuses, round which bees
hummed, to summon me thither to look at it. And while I sat on the bank and
looked at it, I beheld a great wood inside the water, and in the wood was a
hunter, and the hunter had got hold of a lion’s cub with ten arms which he
brought up, and then banished from the wood in anger, on the ground that it was
disobedient. The lion then heard the voice of a lioness in a neighbouring wood,
and was going in the direction of the sound, when his ten arms were scattered
by a whirlwind. Then a man with a protuberant belly came and restored his arms
as they were before, and he went to that forest in search of the lioness. He
endured for her sake much hardship in that other forest, and at last obtained
her whom he had had for a wife in a former state, and with her returned to his
own forest. And when the hunter saw that lion return with his mate to the
forest, which was his hereditary abode, he resigned it to him and departed.
When I had
seen this, I returned to the hermitage and described both those very wonderful
spectacles to Brahmadaṇḍin. And that hermit, who knows the past, present, and
future, kindly said to me, “You are fortunate; Śiva has shewn you all this by
way of favour. That woman, whom you saw, is Illusion, and the wheel which she
caused to revolve, is the wheel of mundane existence, and the bees are living
creatures. And the bull and the donkey are respectively symbols of
Righteousness and Unrighteousness, and the foam of milk and the foam of blood
discharged by them, to which the bees repaired, are typical of good and evil
actions. And they acquired properties arising from the things on which they
respectively settled, and became spiders of two kinds, white and foul
respectively; and then with their energy, which was symbolized by excrement,
they produced entangling nets of two kinds, such as offspring and so on, which
were attached to wholesome and poisonous flowers, which signify happiness and
misery. And while clinging each to its own web, they were bitten by a snake,
typical of Death, with its two mouths, the white set with the white mouth symbolical
of good fortune, the other with the black mouth symbolical of evil fortune.
Then that
female, typifying Illusion plunged them into various wombs typified by the
jars, and they again emerged from them, and assuming forms white and black,
corresponding to what they had before, they fell into entangling webs, which
are symbolical of sons and other worldly connexions, resulting in happiness and
misery. Then the black spiders, entangled in their webs, being tortured by the
poison, symbolical of pain, began in their affliction to invoke the supreme
lord as their help. When the white spiders, who were in their own webs,
perceived that, they also became averse to their state, and began to invoke
that same lord. Then the god, who was present in the form of an ascetic, awoke
from his trance, and consumed all their entangling webs with the fire of
knowledge. Accordingly they ascended into the bright coral tube, typical of the
orb of the sun, and reached the highest home, which lies above it. And then
Illusion vanished, with the revolving wheel of births, and with her ox, and her
ass, typical of Righteousness and Unrighteousness.
Even thus
in the circle of existence revolve creatures, fair and foul according to their
actions, and they are liberated by propitiating Śiva; and this spectacle has
been shown to you by Śiva to teach you this lesson, and to put an end to your
delusion. As for that sight which you saw in the water of the tank, this is the
explanation of it. The holy god produced this apparent reflection in the water,
in order to teach you what was destined to befall Mṛigánkadatta. For he may be
compared to a young lion-whelp, and he was brought up with ten ministers round
him resembling ten arms, and he was banished in anger by his father, (typified
by the hunter) from his native land, typified by the forest: and on hearing the
report of Śaśánkavatí, (who may be compared to a lioness,) coming from the land
of Avanti, (symbolized by the other wood,) he made towards her, and the wind
which stripped him of his arms is the curse of the snake, which separated him
from his ministers. Then Vináyaka appeared as a man with a pendulous belly, and
restored to him his arms, (that is to say, his ministers,) and so he recovered
his former condition. Then he went and after enduring great hardship, obtained
from another place the lioness, (that is Śaśánkavatí,) and returned. And when
the hunter, (that is his father,) saw him coming near with his wife, having
swept away the obstacles which his foes put in his way, he resigned to him the
whole of his forest, (that is his kingdom,) and retired to a grove of ascetics.
Thus has Śiva shewn you the future as if it had already taken place. So you may
be sure, your master will recover you, his ministers, and obtain his wife and
his kingdom.” When the excellent hermit had thus instructed me, I recovered
hope and left that hermitage, and travelling along slowly I have met you here,
prince, to-day. So you may rest assured, prince, that you will recover Prachaṇḍaśakti,
and your other ministers, and gain your object; you certainly gained the favour
of Gaṇeśa by worshipping him before you set out.
When Mṛigánkadatta
had listened for a while to this strange story of Vimalabuddhi’s, he was much
pleased, and after he had again deliberated with him, he set out for the city
of Avanti, with the double object of accomplishing his enterprise and
recovering his other ministers.
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