Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/23

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the evening twilight; a properly trained hetœra should exhibit love without sincerity, like a well-trained actress. With that she should gain a man's affections, then she should extract from him all his wealth, when he is ruined, she should finally abandon him, but if he should recover his wealth, she should take him back into favour. A hetœra, like a hermit, is the same towards a young man, a child, an old man, a handsome man, and a deformed man, and so she^always attains the principal object of existence."*[1] While the kuțținí was delivering this lesson to her daughter, Ratnavarman approached her, and after she had welcomed him, he took a seat by her side. And he said to her— Reverend mother, teach my son this skill of the hetœra, in order that he may become clever in it. And I will give you a thousand dinars by way of recompense." When the kuțținí heard his desire, she consented, and he paid the dinars, and made over his son Íśvaravarman to her, and then returned home.

Then Íśvaravarman, in the course of one year, learned in the house of Yamajihvá all the graceful accomplishments, and then returned to his father's house. And after he had attained sixteen years, he said to his father— " Wealth gives us religion and love, wealth gives us consideration and renown." When his father heard this, he exclaimed in approval, " It is even so," and being delighted, he gave him five crores by way of capital. The son took it, and set out on an auspicious day with a caravan, with the object of journeying to Svarnadvípa. And on the way he reached a town named Kánchanapura, and there he encamped in a garden, at a short distance outside the town. And after bathing and anointing himself, the young man entered the town, and went to a temple to see a spectacle. And there he saw a dancing-girl, of the name of Sundarí, dancing, like a wave of the sea of beauty †[2] tossed up by the wind of youth. And the moment he saw her, lie became so devoted to her, that the instructions of the kuțținí fled far from him, as if in anger. At the end of the dance, he sent a friend to solicit her, and she bowed and said— " I am highly favoured." And Íśvaravarman left vigilant guards in his camp, to watch over his treasure, and went himself to the house of that Sundarí. And when he came, her mother, named Makarakatí, honoured him with the various rites of hospitality which became the occasion. And at nightfall she introduced him into a chamber with a canopy of flashing jewels and a bed. There he passed the night with Sundarí, ‡[3] whose name expressed her nature, and who was skilled in all movements of the dance. And the next day he could not bring himself to part from her, as she shewed great affection for him, and never left his side. And the young merchant gave her twenty-

  1. * Wealth in her case, salvation in that of the hermit,
  2. † Cp. Winter's Tale, Act VI, Scene 4, line 140.
  3. ‡ i. e., beautiful.