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as an umbrella, fell on the top of lingaof Śiva, which the hermit was engaged in worship. Then the fowler, seeing them, took the male swan for himself, and gave the female swan to the hermit, who offered it to Śiva *[1]
" Now you, Pushkaráksha, were that very male swan; and by the virtue of that lotus, which fell on the top of the linga, you have been now born in a royal family. And that female swan has been born in a family of Vidyádharas as Vinayavatí, for Śiva was abundantly worshipped with her flesh. Thus Vinayavatí was your wife in a former birth." When the hermit Vijitásu said this to Pushkaráksha, the king asked him another question; How comes it, hermit, that the entering the fire, which atones for a multitude of sins produced in our case the fruit of birth in the nature of a bird? Thereupon the hermit replied, " A creature receives the form of that which it was contemplating at the moment of death."
Story of Lávanyamanjarí.:— For there was in the city of Ujjayiní a holy Bráhman virgin of the name of Lávanyamanjarí who observed a vow of perpetual chastity; she once saw a Bráhman youth of the name of Kamalodaya, and her mind was suddenly attracted to him, and she was consumed with the fire of love but she did not abandon her vow. She went to the shore of the Gandhavatí, and abandoned her life in a holy place, with her thoughts intently fixed on his love.
But on account of that intent meditation she was born in the next birth as a hetœra, of the name of Rúpavatí, in a town named Ekalavyá, However, owing to the virtue of her vow and of the holy bathing-place, she remembered her former birth, and in conversation she related that secret of her former birth to a Bráhman named Chodakarna, who was always engaged in muttering prayers, in order to cure him of his exclusive devotion to muttering, and at last, though she was a hetœra, as her will was purified she attained blessedness.
" So, king, you see that a person attains similarity to that which he thinks of. Having said this to the king, the hermit dismissed him to bathe, and he himself performed his midday ablutions "
But the king Pushkaráksha went to the bank of the river, that flowed through the forest, and saw Vinayavatí there gathering flowers. Her body gleamed as if she were the light of the sun, come to visit the wood out of curiosity, as it had never been able to penetrate its thickets. He thought to himself, " Who can this be?" And she, as she was sitting in conversation with her maid, said to her; " My friend the Vidyádhara, who wished long ago to carry me off, came here to-day released from his curse, and announced the arrival of my husband." When the friend heard that, she answered the hermit-maiden; " It is true for
- ↑ * in Bengal no animal sacrifices are offered to Śiva at the present day.
