The Kathá Sarit Ságara

[Dark Saint Alaick]

In the meanwhile that king Putraka, faithful to his promise, entered
the impassable wilds of the Vindhya, disgusted with his relations:
as he wandered about he saw two heroes engaged heart and soul in
a wrestling-match, and he asked them who they were. They replied,
"We are the two sons of the Asura Maya, and his wealth belongs to
us, this vessel, and this stick, and these shoes; it is for these
that we are fighting, and whichever of us proves the mightier is to
take them." When he heard this speech of theirs, Putraka said with
a smile--"That is a fine inheritance for a man." Then they said--"By
putting on these shoes one gains the power of flying through the air;
whatever is written with this staff turns out true; and whatever food
a man wishes to have in the vessel is found there immediately." When
he heard this, Putraka said--"What is the use of fighting? Make this
agreement, that whoever proves the best man in running shall possess
this wealth." [45] Those simpletons said--"Agreed"--and set off to run,
while the prince put on the shoes and flew up into the air, taking with
him the staff and the vessel; then he went a great distance in a short
time and saw beneath him a beautiful city named �karshiká and descended
into it from the sky. He reflected with himself; "hetæræ are prone
to deceive, Bráhmans are like my father and uncles, and merchants are
greedy of wealth; in whose house shall I dwell?" Just at that moment he
reached a lonely dilapidated house, and saw a single old woman in it;
so he gratified that old woman with a present, and lived unobserved in
that broken down old house, waited upon respectfully by the old woman.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

Once upon a time the old woman in an affectionate mood said to
Putraka--"I am grieved, my son, that you have not a wife meet
for you. But here there is a maiden named PátalÃ*, the daughter of
the king, and she is preserved like a jewel in the upper story of a
seraglio." While he was listening to this speech of hers with open ear,
the god of love found an unguarded point, and entered by that very path
into his heart. He made up his mind that he must see that damsel that
very day, and in the night flew up through the air to where she was,
by the help of his magic shoes. He then entered by a window, which
was as high above the ground as the peak of a mountain, and beheld
that PátalÃ*, asleep in a secret place in the seraglio, continually
bathed in the moonlight that seemed to cling to her limbs: as it
were the might of love in fleshly form reposing after the conquest of
this world. While he was thinking how he should awake her, suddenly
outside a watchman began to chant: "Young men obtain the fruit of
their birth, when they awake the sleeping fair one, embracing her as
she sweetly scolds, with her eyes languidly opening." On hearing this
encouraging prelude, he embraced that fair one with limbs trembling
with excitement, and then she awoke. When she beheld that prince,
there was a contest between shame and love in her eye, which was
alternately fixed on his face and averted. When they had conversed
together, and gone through the ceremony of the Gándharva marriage,
that couple found their love continually increasing, as the night
waned away. Then Putraka took leave of his sorrowing wife, and with
his mind dwelling only on her went in the last watch of the night to
the old woman's house.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

So every night the prince kept going backwards
and forwards, and at last the intrigue was discovered by the guards
of the seraglio, accordingly they revealed the matter to the lady's
father, and he appointed a woman to watch secretly in the seraglio
at night. She, finding the prince asleep, made a mark with red lac
upon his garment to facilitate his recognition. In the morning she
informed the king of what she had done, and he sent out spies in all
directions, and Putraka was discovered by the mark and dragged out from
the dilapidated house into the presence of the king. Seeing that the
king was enraged, he flew up into the air with the help of the shoes,
and entered the palace of PátalÃ*. He said to her,--"We are discovered,
therefore rise up, let us escape with the help of the shoes, and so
taking PátalÃ* in his arms he flew away from that place through the
air. [46] Then descending from heaven near the bank of the Ganges,
he refreshed his weary beloved with cakes provided by means of the
magic vessel. When PátalÃ* saw the power of Putraka she made a request
to him, in accordance with which he sketched out with the staff a
city furnished with a force of all four arms. [47] In that city he
established himself as king, and his great power having attained
full development, he subdued that father-in-law of his, and became
ruler of the sea-engirdled earth. This is that same divine city,
produced by magic, together with its citizens; hence it bears the
name of Pátaliputra, and is the home of wealth and learning.

When we heard from the mouth of Varsha the above strange and
extraordinarily marvellous story, our minds, O Kánabhúti, were for
a long time delighted with thrilling wonder.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

CHAPTER IV.


Having related this episode to Kánabhúti in the Vindhya forest,
Vararuchi again resumed the main thread of his narrative.

While thus dwelling there with Vyádi and Indradatta, I gradually
attained perfection in all sciences, and emerged from the condition of
childhood. Once on a time when we went out to witness the festival of
Indra, we saw a maiden looking like some weapon of Cupid, not of the
nature of an arrow. Then, Indradatta, on my asking him who that lady
might be, replied,--"She is the daughter of Upavarsha, and her name
is Upakosá," and she found out by means of her handmaids who I was,
and drawing my soul after her with a glance made tender by love, she
with difficulty managed to return to her own house. She had a face
like a full moon, and eyes like a blue lotus, she had arms graceful
like the stalk of a lotus, and a lovely full [48] bosom; she had a neck
marked with three lines like a shell, [49] and magnificent coral lips;
in short she was a second LakshmÃ*, so to speak, the store-house of the
beauty of king Cupid. Then my heart was cleft by the stroke of love's
arrow, and I could not sleep that night through my desire to kiss her
bimba [50] lip. Having at last with difficulty gone off to sleep,
I saw, at the close of night, a celestial woman in white garments;
she said to me--"Upakosá was thy wife in a former birth; as she
appreciates merit, she desires no one but thee, therefore, my son,
thou oughtest not to feel anxious about this matter. I am SarasvatÃ*
[51] that dwell continually in thy frame, I cannot bear to behold thy
grief." When she had said this, she disappeared. Then I woke up and
somewhat encouraged I went slowly and stood under a young mango tree
near the house of my beloved; then her confidante came and told me of
the ardent attachment of Upakosá to me, the result of sudden passion:
then I with my pain doubled, said to her, "How can I obtain Upakosá,
unless her natural protectors willingly bestow her upon me? For
death is better than dishonour; so if by any means your friend's
heart became known to her parents, perhaps the end might be prosperous.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

"Therefore bring this about, my good woman, save the life of me and
of thy friend." When she heard this, she went and told all to her
friend's mother, she immediately told it to her husband Upavarsha,
he to Varsha his brother, and Varsha approved of the match. Then, my
marriage having been determined upon, Vyádi by the order of my tutor
went and brought my mother from KausámbÃ*; so Upakosá was bestowed
upon me by her father with all due ceremonies, and I lived happily
in Pátaliputra with my mother and my wife.

Now in course of time Varsha got a great number of pupils, and among
them there was one rather stupid pupil of the name of Pánini; he,
being wearied out with service, was sent away by the preceptor's wife,
and being disgusted at it and longing for learning, he went to the
Himálaya to perform austerities: then he obtained from the god, who
wears the moon as a crest, propitiated by his severe austerities, a new
grammar, the source of all learning. Thereupon he came and challenged
me to a disputation, and seven days passed away in the course of our
disputation; on the eighth day he had been fairly conquered by me,
but immediately afterwards a terrible menacing sound was uttered by
Siva in the firmament; owing to that our Aindra grammar was exploded
in the world, [52] and all of us, being conquered by Pánini, became
accounted fools. Accordingly full of despondency I deposited in the
hand of the merchant Hiranyadatta my wealth for the maintenance of
my house, and after informing Upakosá of it, I went fasting to mount
Himálaya to propitiate Siva with austerities.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

Story of Upakosá and her four lovers.

Upakosá on her part anxious for my success, remained in her own house,
bathing every day in the Ganges, strictly observing her vow. One day,
when spring had come, she being still beautiful, though thin and
slightly pale, and charming to the eyes of men, like the streak of
the new moon, was seen by the king's domestic chaplain while going
to bathe in the Ganges, and also by the head magistrate, and by the
prince's minister; and immediately they all of them became a target for
the arrows of love. It happened too somehow or other that she took a
long time bathing that day, and as she was returning in the evening,
the prince's minister laid violent hands on her, but she with great
presence of mind said to him, "Dear Sir, I desire this as much as you,
but I am of respectable family, and my husband is away from home. How
can I act thus? Some one might perhaps see us, and then misfortune
would befall you as well as me. Therefore you must come without fail
to my house in the first watch of the night of the spring-festival
when the citizens are all excited." [53] When she had said this,
and pledged herself, he let her go, but, as chance would have it, she
had not gone many steps further, before she was stopped by the king's
domestic chaplain. She made a similar assignation with him also for
the second watch of the same night; and so he too was, though with
difficulty, induced to let her go; but, after she had gone a little
further, up comes a third person, the head magistrate, and detains the
trembling lady. Then she made a similar assignation with him too for
the third watch of the same night, and having by great good fortune
got him to release her, she went home all trembling, and of her own
accord told her handmaids the arrangements she had made, reflecting,
"Death is better for a woman of good family when her husband is away,
than to meet the eyes of people who lust after beauty." Full of these
thoughts and regretting me, the virtuous lady spent that night in
fasting, lamenting her own beauty. Early the next morning she sent
a maid-servant to the merchant Hiranyagupta to ask for some money
in order that she might honour the Bráhmans: then that merchant also
came and said to her in private, "Shew me love, and then I will give
you what your husband deposited." When she heard that, she reflected
that she had no witness to prove the deposit of her husband's wealth,
and perceived that the merchant was a villain, and so tortured with
sorrow and grief, she made a fourth and last assignation with him for
the last watch of the same night; so he went away. In the meanwhile
she had prepared by her handmaids in a large vat lamp-black mixed
with oil and scented with musk and other perfumes, and she made ready
four pieces of rag anointed with it, and she caused to be made a large
trunk with a fastening outside. So on that day of the spring-festival
the prince's minister came in the first watch of the night in gorgeous
array. When he had entered without being observed Upakosá said to him,
"I will not receive you until you have bathed, so go in and bathe."

[Dark Saint Alaick]

The simpleton agreed to that, and was taken by
the handmaids into a secret dark inner apartment.
There they took off his under-garments and
his jewels, and gave him by way of an under-garment a single piece
of rag, and they smeared the rascal from head to foot with a thick
coating of that lamp-black and oil, pretending it was an unguent,
without his detecting it. While they continued rubbing it into every
limb, the second watch of the night came and the chaplain arrived,
the handmaids thereupon said to the minister,--"here is the king's
chaplain come, a great friend of Vararuchi's, so creep into this
box"--and they bundled him into the trunk, just as he was, all naked,
with the utmost precipitation: and then they fastened it outside with
a bolt. The priest too was brought inside into the dark room on the
pretence of a bath, and was in the same way stripped of his garments
and ornaments, and made a fool of by the handmaids by being rubbed with
lamp-black and oil, with nothing but the piece of rag on him, until in
the third watch the chief magistrate arrived. The handmaids immediately
terrified the priest with the news of his arrival, and pushed him into
the trunk like his predecessor. After they had bolted him in, they
brought in the magistrate on the pretext of giving him a bath, and
so he, like his fellows, with the piece of rag for his only garment,
was bamboozled by being continually anointed with lamp-black, until in
the last watch of the night the merchant arrived. The handmaids made
use of his arrival to alarm the magistrate and bundled him also into
the trunk, and fastened it on the outside. So those three being shut
up inside the box, as if they were bent on accustoming themselves to
live in the hell of blind darkness, did not dare to speak on account
of fear, though they touched one another. Then Upakosá brought a
lamp into the room, and making the merchant enter it, said to him,
"give me that money which my husband deposited with you." When he
heard that, the rascal said, observing that the room was empty,
"I told you that I would give you the money your husband deposited
with me." Upakosá calling the attention of the people in the trunk,
said--"Hear, O ye gods this speech of Hiranyagupta." When she had
said this, she blew out the light, and the merchant, like the others,
on the pretext of a bath was anointed by the handmaids for a long time
with lamp-black. Then they told him to go, for the darkness was over,
and at the close of the night they took him by the neck and pushed
him out of the door sorely against his will. Then he made the best of
his way home, with only the piece of rag to cover his nakedness, and
smeared with the black dye, with the dogs biting him at every step,
thoroughly ashamed of himself, and at last reached his own house; and
when he got there he did not dare to look his slaves in the face while
they were washing off that black dye. The path of vice is indeed a
painful one. In the early morning Upakosá accompanied by her handmaids
went, without informing her parents, to the palace of king Nanda, and
there she herself stated to the king that the merchant Hiranyagupta
was endeavouring to deprive her of money deposited with him by her
husband. The king in order to enquire into the matter immediately
had the merchant summoned, who said--"I have nothing in my keeping
belonging to this lady." Upakosá then said, "I have witnesses, my lord;
before he went, my husband put the household gods into a box, and this
merchant with his own lips admitted the deposit in their presence. Let
the box be brought here and ask the gods yourself." Having heard this
the king in astonishment ordered the box to be brought.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

Thereupon in a moment that trunk was carried in by many men. Then
Upakosá said--"Relate truly, O gods, what that merchant said and then
go to your own houses; if you do not, I will burn you or open the
box in court." Hearing that, the men in the box, beside themselves
with fear, said--"It is true, the merchant admitted the deposit in
our presence." Then the merchant being utterly confounded confessed
all his guilt; but the king, being unable to restrain his curiosity,
after asking permission of Upakosá, opened the chest there in court
by breaking the fastening, and those three men were dragged out,
looking like three lumps of solid darkness, and were with difficulty
recognised by the king and his ministers. The whole assembly then burst
out laughing, and the king in his curiosity asked Upakosá, what was the
meaning of all this; so the virtuous lady told the whole story. All
present in court expressed their approbation of Upakosá's conduct,
observing: "The virtuous behaviour of women of good family who are
protected by their own excellent disposition [54] only, is incredible."

[Dark Saint Alaick]

Then all those coveters of their neighbour's wife were deprived
of all their living, and banished from the country. Who prospers
by immorality? Upakosá was dismissed by the king, who shewed his
great regard for her by a present of much wealth, and said to her:
"Henceforth thou art my sister,"--and so she returned home. Varsha
and Upavarsha when they heard it, congratulated that chaste lady,
and there was a smile of admiration on the face of every single person
in that city. [55]

In the meanwhile, by performing a very severe penance on the snowy
mountain, I propitiated the god, the husband of PárvatÃ*, the great
giver of all good things; he revealed to me that same treatise of
Pánini; and in accordance with his wish I completed it: then I returned
home without feeling the fatigue of the journey, full of the nectar
of the favour of that god who wears on his crest a digit of the moon;
then I worshipped the feet of my mother and of my spiritual teachers,
and heard from them the wonderful achievement of Upakosá, thereupon
joy and astonishment swelled to the upmost height in my breast,
together with natural affection and great respect for my wife.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

Now Varsha expressed a desire to hear from my lips the new grammar,
and thereupon the god Kártikeya himself revealed it to him. And it
came to pass that Vyádi and Indradatta asked their preceptor Varsha
what fee they should give him? He replied, "Give me ten millions of
gold pieces." So they, consenting to the preceptor's demand, said to
me; "Come with us, friend, to ask the king Nanda to give us the sum
required for our teacher's fee; we cannot obtain so much gold from
any other quarter: for he possesses nine hundred and ninety millions,
and long ago he declared your wife Upakosá, his sister in the faith,
therefore you are his brother-in-law; we shall obtain something for
the sake of your virtues." Having formed this resolution, we three
fellow-students [56] went to the camp of king Nanda in Ayodhyá,
and the very moment we arrived, the king died; accordingly an
outburst of lamentation arose in the kingdom, and we were reduced
to despair. Immediately Indradatta, who was an adept in magic, said,
"I will enter the body of this dead king [57]; let Vararuchi prefer
the petition to me, and I will give him the gold, and let Vyádi guard
my body until I return." Saying this, Indradatta entered into the body
of king Nanda, and when the king came to life again, there was great
rejoicing in the kingdom. While Vyádi remained in an empty temple to
guard the body of Indradatta, I went to the king's palace. I entered,
and after making the usual salutation, I asked the supposed Nanda for
ten million gold pieces as my instructor's fee.