Chapter
XCVIII.
(Vetála
)
Then the
brave king Trivikramasena, disregarding the awful night, which in that terrible
cemetery assumed the appearance of a Rákshasí, being black with darkness, and
having the flames of the funeral pyres for fiery eyes, again went to the
aśoka-tree, and took from it the Vetála, and put him on his shoulder.
And while
he was going along with him, as before, the Vetála again said to that king, “O
king, I am tired out with going backwards and forwards, though you are not: so
I will put to you one difficult question, and mind you listen to me.”
Story
of the father that married the daughter and the son that married the mother.
There was
in the Dekkan a king of a small province, who was named Dharma; he was the
chief of virtuous men, but he had many relations who aspired to supplant him.
He had a wife named Chandravatí, who came from the land of Málava; she was of
high lineage, and the most virtuous of women. And that king had born to him by
that wife one daughter, who was not without cause named Lávaṇyavatí.
And when
that daughter had attained a marriageable age, king Dharma was ejected from his
throne by his relations, who banded together and divided his realm. Then he
fled from his kingdom at night with his wife and that daughter, taking with him
a large number of valuable jewels, and he deliberately set out for Málava the
dwelling-place of his father-in-law. And in the course of that same night he
reached the Vindhya forest with his wife and daughter. And when he entered it,
the night, that had escorted him thus far, took leave of him with drops of dew
by way of tears. And the sun ascended the eastern mountain, stretching forth
its first rays, like a warning hand, to dissuade him from entering that
brigand-haunted wood. Then he travelled on through it with his wife and
daughter, having his feet wounded with sharp points of kuśa-grass, and he
reached a village of the Bhillas. It was full of men that robbed their
neighbours of life and property, and shunned by the virtuous, like the strong
city of Death.
Then
beholding the king from a distance with his dress and ornaments, many Śavaras,
armed with various weapons, ran to plunder him. When king Dharma saw that, he
said to his daughter and wife, “The barbarians will seize on you first, so
enter the wood in this direction.” When the king said this to them, queen
Chandravatí and her daughter Lávaṇyavatí, in their terror, plunged into the
middle of the wood. And the brave king, armed with sword and shield, killed
many of the Śavaras, who came towards him, raining arrows. Then the chief
summoned the whole village, and falling on the king, who stood there alone,
they slashed his shield to pieces and killed him; and then the host of bandits
departed with his ornaments. And queen Chandravatí, concealed in a thicket of
the wood, saw from a distance her husband slain: so in her bewilderment she
fled with her daughter, and they entered another dense forest a long distance
off. There they found that the shadows of the trees, afflicted by the heat of
midday, had laid themselves at their cool roots, imitating travellers. So,
tired and sad, the queen sat down weeping with her daughter, in a spot on the
bank of a lotus-lake, under the shade of an aśoka-tree.
In the
meanwhile a chief, who lived near, came to that forest on horseback, with his
son, to hunt. He was named Chaṇḍasinha, and when he saw their footsteps
imprinted in the dust, he said to his son Sinhaparákrama, “We will follow up
these lovely and auspicious tracks, and if we find the ladies to whom they
belong, you shall choose whichever you please of them.” When Chaṇḍasinha said
this, his son Sinhaparákrama said to him, “I should like to have for a wife the
one that has these small feet, for I know that she will be young and suited to
me. But this one with large feet, being older than the other, will just suit
you. When Chaṇḍasinha heard this speech of his son’s, he said to him, “What is
this that you say? Your mother has only recently gone to heaven, and now that I
have lost so good a wife, how can I desire another?” When Chaṇḍasinha’s son
heard that, he said to him, “Father, do not say so, for the home of a
householder is empty without a wife. Moreover, have you not heard the stanza
composed by Múladeva? ‘Who, that is not a fool, enters that house in which
there is no shapely love eagerly awaiting his return, which, though called a
house, is really a prison without chains.’ So, father, my death will lie at
your door, if you do not take as your wife that companion of the lady whom I
have chosen.”
When Chaṇḍasinha
heard this speech of his son’s, he approved it, and went on slowly with him,
tracking up their footsteps. And he reached that spot near the lake, and saw
that dark queen Chandravatí, adorned with many strings of pearls, sitting in
the shade of a tree. She looked like the midnight sky in the middle of the day,
and her daughter Lávaṇyavatí, like the pure white moonlight, seemed to illumine
her. And he and his son eagerly approached her, and she, when she saw him, rose
up terrified, thinking that he was a bandit.
But the
queen’s daughter said to her, “Mother, do not be afraid, these are not bandits,
these two gentle-looking well-dressed persons are certainly some nobles come
here to hunt.” However the queen still continued to hesitate; and then Chaṇḍasinha
got down from his horse and said to the two ladies, “Do not be alarmed; we have
come here to see you out of love; so take confidence and tell us fearlessly who
you are, since you seem like Rati and Príti fled to this wood in sorrow at
Cupid’s having been consumed by the flames of Śiva’s fiery eye. And how did you
two come to enter this unpeopled wood? For these forms of yours are fitted to
dwell in a gem-adorned palace. And our minds are tortured to think how your
feet, that deserve to be supported by the lap of beautiful women, can have
traversed this ground full of thorns. And, strange to say, the dust raised by
the wind, falling on your faces, makes our faces lose their brightness from
despondency. And the furious heat of the beams of the fierce-rayed sun, as it
plays on your flower-soft bodies, burns us. So tell us your story; for our
hearts are afflicted; we cannot bear to see you thus abiding in a forest full
of wild beasts.”
When Chaṇḍasinha
said this, the queen sighed, and full of shame and grief, slowly told him her
story. Then Chaṇḍasinha, seeing that she had no protector, comforted her and
her daughter, and coaxed them with kind words into becoming members of his
family. And he and his son put the queen and her daughter on their horses, and
conducted them to their rich palace in Vittapapurí. And the queen, being
helpless, submitted to his will, as if she had been born again in a second
life. What is an unprotected woman, fallen into calamity in a foreign land, to
do? Then Sinhaparákrama, the son of Chaṇḍasinha, made Chandravatí his wife, on
account of the smallness of her feet. And Chaṇḍasinha made her daughter, the princess
Lávaṇyavatí, his wife, on account of the largeness of her feet. For they made
this agreement originally, when they saw the two tracks of the small footsteps
and the large footsteps: and who ever swerves from his plighted word?
So, from
the mistake about the feet, the daughter became the wife of the father, and the
mother the wife of the son, and so the daughter became the mother-in-law of her
own mother, and the mother became the daughter-in-law of her own daughter. And
in course of time, both of them had by those husbands sons and daughters, and
they also had sons and daughters in due course of time. So Chaṇḍasinha and
Sinhaparákrama lived in their city, having obtained as wives Lávaṇyavatí and
Chandravatí.
When the
Vetála had told this story on the way at night, he again put a question to king
Trivikramasena; “Now, king, about the children who were in course of time born
to the mother and daughter by the son and the father in those two lines—what
relationship did they bear to one another? Tell me if you know. And the curse
before threatened will descend on you, if you know and do not tell.”
When the
king heard this question of the Vetála’s, he turned the matter over and over
again in his mind, but he could not find out, so he went on his way in silence.
Then the Vetála in the dead man’s body, perched on the top of his shoulder,
laughed to himself, and reflected; “Ha! Ha! The king does not know how to
answer this puzzling question, so he is glad, and silently goes on his way with
very nimble feet. Now I cannot manage to deceive this treasure-house of valour
any further; and this is not enough to make that mendicant stop playing tricks
with me. So I will now deceive that villain, and by an artifice bestow the
success, which he has earned, upon this king, whom a glorious future awaits.”
When the
Vetála had gone through these reflections, he said to the king, “King, though
you have been worried with so many journeys to and fro in this cemetery
terrible with black night, you seem quite happy, and you do not shew the least
irresolution. I am pleased with this wonderful courage that you shew. So now
carry off this body, for I am going out of it; and listen to this advice which
I give you for your welfare, and act on it. That wicked mendicant, for whom you
have fetched this human corpse, will immediately summon me into it, and honour
me. And wishing to offer you up as a victim, the rascal will say to you, ‘King,
prostrate yourself on the ground in such a way that eight limbs will touch it.’
Then, great king, you must say to that ascetic, ‘Shew me first how to do it,
and then I will do exactly as you do.’ Then he will fling himself on the
ground, and shew you how to perform the prostration, and that moment you must
cut off his head with the sword. Then you will obtain that prize which he
desires, the sovereignty of the Vidyádharas; enjoy this earth by sacrificing
him! But otherwise that mendicant will offer you up as a victim; it was to
prevent this that I threw obstacles in your way for such a long time here. So
depart; may you prosper!” When the Vetála had said this, he went out of that
human corpse, that was on the king’s shoulder.
Then the
king was led by the speech of the Vetála, who was pleased with him, to look
upon the ascetic Kshántiśíla as his enemy, but he went to him in high spirits,
where he sat under that banyan-tree, and took with him that human corpse.
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