Chapter
LXXXIX
(Vetála)
Then king
Trivikramasena again went back to the aśoka-tree and took the Vetála from it,
and set out with him once more; and as the king was going along, the Vetála,
perched on his shoulder, said to him; “Listen, king, I will tell you another
story.”
Story
of the magic globule
There was
in the kingdom of Nepála a city named Śivapura, and in it there lived of old
time a king rightly named Yaśaḥketu. He devolved upon his minister, named
Prajnáságara, the burden of his kingdom, and enjoyed himself in the society of
his queen Chandraprabhá. And in course of time that king had born to him, by
that queen, a daughter named Śaśiprabhá, bright as the moon, the eye of the
world.
Now in
course of time she grew up to womanhood, and one day, in the month of spring,
she went to a garden, with her attendants, to witness a festive procession. And
in a certain part of that garden a Bráhman, of the name of Manaḥsvámin, the son
of a rich man, who had come to see the procession, beheld her engaged in
gathering flowers, raising her lithe arm, and displaying her graceful shape;
and she looked charming when the grasp of her thumb and forefinger on the
stalks of the flowers relaxed. When the young man Manaḥsvámin saw her, she at
once robbed him of his heart, and he was bewildered by love and no longer
master of his feelings. He said to himself, “Can this be Rati come in person to
gather the flowers accumulated by spring, in order to make arrows for the god
of love? Or is it the presiding goddess of the wood, come to worship the
spring?” While he was making these surmises, the princess caught sight of him.
And as soon as she saw him, looking like a second god of love created with a
body, she forgot her flowers, and her limbs, and her own personal identity.
While those
two were thus overpowered by the passion of mutual love at first sight, a loud
shout of alarm was raised, and they both looked with uplifted heads to see what
it could mean. Then there came that way an elephant, rushing along with its
elephant-hook hanging down, that driven furious by perceiving the smell of
another elephant, had broken its fastenings, and rushed out in a state of
frenzy, breaking down the trees in its path, and had thrown its driver. The
princess’s attendants dispersed in terror, but Manaḥsvámin eagerly rushed
forward, and took her up alone in his arms, and while she clung timidly to him,
bewildered with fear, love, and shame, carried her to a distance, out of reach
of the elephant. Then her attendants came up and praised that noble Bráhman,
and conducted her back to her palace. But as she went, she frequently turned
round to look at her deliverer. There she remained, thinking regretfully of that
man who had saved her life, consumed day and night by the smouldering fire of
love.
And Manaḥsvámin
then left that garden, and seeing that the princess had entered her private
apartments, he said to himself, in regretful longing, “I cannot remain without
her, nay I cannot live without her: so my only resource in this difficulty is
the cunning Múladeva, who is a master of magic arts.” Having thus reflected, he
managed to get through that day, and the next morning he went to visit that
master of magic, Múladeva. And he saw that master, who was ever in the company
of his friend Śaśin, full of many marvellous magic ways, like the sky come down
to earth in human shape. And he humbly saluted him, and told him his desire;
then the master laughed, and promised to accomplish it for him. Then that
matchless deceiver Múladeva placed a magic globule in his mouth, and
transformed himself into an aged Bráhman; and he gave the Bráhman Manaḥsvámin a
second globule to put in his mouth, and so made him assume the appearance of a
beautiful maiden. And that prince of villains took him in this disguise to the
judgment-hall of the king, the father of his lady-love, and said to him,“O
king, I have only one son, and I asked for a maiden to be given him to wife,
and brought her from a long distance; but now he has gone somewhere or other,
and I am going to look for him; so keep this maiden safe for me until I bring
back my son, for you keep safe under your protection the whole world.” When
king Yaśaḥketu heard this petition, he granted it, fearing a curse if he did
not, and summoned his daughter Śaśiprabhá, and said to her; “Daughter, keep
this maiden in your palace, and let her sleep and take her meals with you.” The
princess agreed, and took Manaḥsvámin transformed into a maiden to her own
private apartments; and then Múladeva, who had assumed the form of a Bráhman,
went where he pleased, and Manaḥsvámin remained in the form of a maiden with
his beloved.
And in a
few days the princess became quite fond of and intimate with her new attendant;
so, one night when she was pining at being separated from the object of her
affections, and tossing on her couch, Manaḥsvámin, who was on a bed near her,
concealed under a female shape, said secretly to her, “My dear Śas’iprabhá, why
are you pale of hue, and why do you grow thinner every day, and sorrow as one
separated from the side of her beloved? Tell me, for why should you distrust
loving modest attendants? From this time forth I will take no food until you
tell me.”
When the
princess heard this, she sighed, and slowly told the following tale; “Why
should I distrust you of all people? Listen, friend, I will tell you the cause.
Once on a time I went to a spring garden to see a procession, and there I
beheld a handsome young Bráhman, who seemed like the month of spring, having
the loveliness of the moon free from dew, kindling love at sight, adorning the
grove with play of light. And while my eager eyes, drinking in the nectarous
rays of the moon of his countenance, began to emulate the partridge, there came
there a mighty elephant broken loose from its bonds, roaring and distilling its
ichor like rain, looking like a black rain-cloud appearing out of season. My
attendants dispersed terrified at that elephant, but when I was bewildered with
fear, that young Bráhman caught me up in his arms and carried me to a distance.
Then contact with his body made me feel as if I were anointed with sandal-wood
ointment, and bedewed with ambrosia, and I was in a state which I cannot
describe. And in a moment my attendants re-assembled, and I was brought back
reluctant to this my palace, and seemed to myself to have been cast down to
earth from heaven. From that time forth I have often interviews in reveries
with my beloved, that rescued me from death, and even when awake I seem to see
him at my side. And when asleep I see him in dreams, coaxing me and dispelling
my reserve with kisses and caresses. But, ill-fated wretch that I am, I cannot
obtain him, for I am baffled by ignorance of his name and other particulars
about him. So I am consumed, as you see, by the fire of separation from the
lord of my life.”
When Manaḥsvámin’s
ears had been filled with the nectar of this speech of the princess’s, that
Bráhman, who was present there in female form, rejoiced, and considered that
his object was attained, and that the time had come for revealing himself, so
he took out the globule from his mouth, and displayed himself in his true form,
and said; “Rolling-eyed one, I am that very Bráhman, whom you bought with a
look in the garden, and made your slave in the truest sense of the word. And
from the immediate interruption of our acquaintance I derived that sorrow, of
which the final result was my taking, as you see, the form of a maiden.
Therefore, fair one, grant that the sorrow of separation, which both of us have
endured, may not have been borne in vain, for Cupid cannot endure beyond this
point.” When the princess suddenly beheld her beloved in front of her, and
heard him utter these words, she was at once filled with love, astonishment,
and shame. So they eagerly went through the Gándharva ceremony of marriage.
Then Manaḥsvámin lived happily in the palace, under two shapes; keeping the
globule in his mouth during the day and so wearing a female shape, but at night
taking it out, and assuming the form of a man.
Now, as
days went on, the brother-in-law of king Yaśaḥketu, named Mṛigánkadatta, gave
his own daughter, named Mṛigánkavatí, in marriage to a young Bráhman, the son
of the minister Prajnáságara: and with her he bestowed much wealth. And the
princess Śaśiprabhá was invited, on the occasion of her cousin’s marriage, to
her uncle’s house, and went there accompanied by her ladies-in-waiting. And
among them went the young Bráhman, Manaḥsvámin, wearing the attractive form of
a young maiden of exquisite beauty.
Then that
minister’s son beheld him disguised in female form, and was deeply pierced with
the shafts of the archer Love. And when he went to his house, accompanied by
his bride, it seemed to him to be empty; for he was robbed of his heart by that
seeming maiden. Then he continued to think of nothing but the beauty of that
supposed maiden’s face, and bitten by the great snake of fierce passion, he
suddenly became distracted. The people, who were there, ceased from their
rejoicing, and in their bewilderment asked what it meant, and his father
Prajnáságara, hearing of it, came to him in haste. And when his father tried to
comfort him, he woke up from his stupor and uttered what was in his mind,
babbling deliriously. And that father of his was very much troubled, as he
thought that the matter was one altogether beyond his power. Then the king
heard of it, and came there in person. And he at once saw that the minister’s
son had been in a moment reduced by strong passion to the seventh stage of
love-sickness; so he said to his ministers; “How can I give him a maiden whom a
Bráhman left in my care? And yet, if he does not obtain her, he will without
doubt reach the last stage. If he dies, his father, who is my minister, will perish;
and if he perishes, my kingdom is ruined, so tell me what I am to do in this
matter.”
When the
king said this, all those ministers said, “They say that the special virtue of
a king is the protection of the virtue of his subjects. Now the root of this
protection is counsel, and counsel resides in counsellors. If the counsellor
perishes, protection perishes in its root, and virtue is certain to be
impaired. Moreover guilt would be incurred by causing the death of this Bráhman
minister and his son, so you must avoid doing that, otherwise there is a great
chance of your infringing the law of virtue. Accordingly you must certainly
give to the minister’s son the maiden committed to your care by the first
Bráhman, and if he returns after the lapse of some time, and is angry, steps
can then be taken to put matters right.”
When the
ministers said this to the king, he agreed to give that man, who was palming
himself off as a maiden, to the minister’s son. And after fixing an auspicious
moment, he brought Manaḥsvámin, in female form, from the palace of the
princess; and he said to the king; “If, king, you are determined to give me,
whom another committed to your care, to a person other than him for whom I was
intended, I must, I suppose, acquiesce; you are a king, and justice and
injustice are matters familiar to you. But I consent to the marriage on this
condition only, that I am not to be considered as a wife until my husband has
spent six months in visiting holy bathing-places, and returns home; if this
condition is not agreed to, know that I will bite my own tongue in two, and so
commit suicide.”
When the
young man, disguised in female form, had prescribed this condition, the king
informed the minister’s son of it, and he was consoled, and accepted the terms;
and he quickly went through the ceremony of marriage, and placed in one house Mṛigánkavatí
his first wife, and his second supposed wife, carefully guarded, and, like a
fool, went on a pilgrimage to holy bathing-places, to please the object of his
affections.
And Manaḥsvámin,
in female form, dwelt in the same house with Mṛigánkavatí, as the partner of
her bed and board. And one night, while he was living there in this way, Mṛigánkavatí
said to him secretly in the bed-chamber, while their attendants were sleeping
outside, “My friend, I cannot sleep, tell me some tale.” When the young man,
disguised in female form, heard this, he told her the story, how in old time a
royal sage, named Iḍa, of the race of the sun, assumed, in consequence of the
curse of Gaurí, a female form that fascinated the whole world, and how he and
Budha fell in love with one another at first sight, meeting one another in a
shrubbery in the grounds of a temple, and were there united, and how Purúravas
was the fruit of that union. When the artful creature had told this story, he
went on to say, “So by the fiat of a deity or by charms and drugs, a man may
sometimes become a woman, and vice versâ, and in this way even great ones do
sometimes unite impelled by love.”
When the
tender fair one, who regretted her husband, who had left her as soon as the
marriage had taken place, heard this, she said to her supposed rival, in whom
she had come to confide by living with her, “This story makes my body tremble
and my heart, as it were, sink; so tell me friend, what is the meaning of
this.” When the Bráhman, disguised in female form, heard this, he went on to
say, “My friend, these are violent symptoms of love; I have felt them myself, I
will not conceal it from you.” When she said this, Mṛigánkavatí went on slowly
to say, “Friend, I love you as my life, so why should I not say what I think it
is time to reveal? Could any one by any artifice be introduced into this
palace?” When the pupil of that master-rogue heard this, he took her meaning
and said to her, “If this is the state of affairs, then I have something to
tell you. I have a boon from Vishṇu, by which I can at pleasure become a man
during the night, so I will now become one for your sake.” So he took the
globule out of his mouth, and displayed himself to her as a handsome man in the
prime of youth. And so the Bráhman lived with the wife of the minister’s son,
becoming a woman in the day, and resuming his male form at night. But hearing
in a few days that the son of the minister was on the point of returning, he
took the precaution of eloping with her from that house during the night.
At this
point in the story, it happened that his teacher, Múladeva, heard all the
circumstances; so he again assumed the form of an old Bráhman, and accompanied
by his friend Śaśin, who had assumed the form of a young Bráhman, he went and
respectfully said to king Yaśaḥketu, “I have brought back my son; so give me my
daughter-in-law.” Then the king, who was afraid of being cursed, deliberated
and said to him; “Bráhman, I do not know where your daughter-in-law has gone,
so forgive me; as I am in fault, I will give you my own daughter for your son.”
When the king had said this to that prince of rogues, disguised in the form of
an old Bráhman, who asserted his false claim with the sternness of assumed
anger, he gave his daughter with all due ceremonies to his friend Śaśin, who
pretended to be the supposed Bráhman’s son. Then Múladeva took the bride and
bridegroom, who had been thus united, off to his own home, without showing any
desire for the king’s wealth.
And there
Manaḥsvámin met them, and a fierce dispute took place between him and Śaśin in
the presence of that Múladeva. Manaḥsvámin said, “This Śaśiprabhá should be
given to me, for long ago, when she was a maiden, I married her by the favour
of the master.” Śaśin said, “You fool, what have you to do with her? she is my
wife, for her father bestowed her on me in the presence of the fire.” So they
went on wrangling about the princess, whom they had got hold of by means of
magic, and their dispute was never decided. So tell me, king, to which of the
two does that wife belong? Resolve my doubt; the conditions of non-compliance
are those which I mentioned before.”
When king
Trivikramasena was thus addressed by the Vetála on his shoulder, he gave him
this answer: “I consider that the princess is the lawful wife of Śaśin, since
she was openly given to him by her father in the lawful way. But Manaḥsvámin
married her in an underhand way, like a thief, by the Gándharva rite; and a
thief has no lawful title to the possessions of another.”
When the
Vetála heard this answer of the king’s, he quickly left his shoulder, and went
back to his own place, and the king hurried after him.
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