489
That maiden struck that mighty elephant, that came towards her, with
her band, on its trunk; and smote it with those sidelong looks askance of hers. The elephant was fascinated with the touch of her hand and penetrated with her glance, and remained with head bent down, gazing at her, and never moved a step.*[1] Then that fair lady made a swing with her upper
garment, which she fastened to its tusks, and climbed up and got into it, and amused herself with swinging. Then the elephant, seeing that she felt the heat, went into the shade of a tree; and the citizens, who were present, seeing this great wonder, exclaimed, " Ah ! This is some glorious heavenly maiden, who charms even animals by her power, which is as transcendent as her beauty."
And in the meanwhile the prince Avantivardhana. hearing of it. came out to see the wonderful sight, and beheld that maiden. As he gazed, the deer of his heart ran into that net of the hunter Love, and was entangled by it. She too, when she saw him, her heart being charmed by his beauty, came down from that swing, which she had put up on the elephant's tusks, and took her upper garment. Then a driver mounted the elephant, and she went home, looking at the prince with an expression of shame and affection.
And Avantivardhana, for his part, the disturbance caused by the elephant having come to an end, went home to his palace with his bosom empty, bis heart having been stolen from it by her. And when he got home, he was tortured by no longer seeing that lovely maiden, and forgetting the feast of the giving of water, which had begun, he said to his companions, " Do you know whose daughter that maiden is, and what her name is?" When his friends heard that, they said to him, " There is a certain Mátanga †[2] in the quarter of the Chandálas, named Utpalahasta, and she is his daughter, Suratamanjari by name. Her lovely form can give pleasure to the good ‡[3] only by being looked at, like that of a pictured beauty, but cannot be touched without pollution." When the prince heard that from his friends, he said to them, " I do not think she can be the daughter of a Mátanga, she is certainly some heavenly maiden; for a Chandála maiden would never possess such a beautiful form. Lovely as she is, if she does not become my wife, what is the profit of my life?" So the prince continued to say, and his ministers could not check him, but he was exceedingly afflicted with the fire of separation from her.
- ↑ * Cp. Vol I, p 328 and ff. The story in the Gesta Romanorum to which reference is there made, bears a close resemblance to the present story; but in the present case it appears as if beauty had more to do with fascinating the elephant than modesty.
- ↑ † The Petersburg lexicographers explain this as a Chandála a man of the lowest rank, a kind of Kiráta,
- ↑ ‡ The word " good " is used in a sense approximating to that in which it is used by Theognis, and the patricians in Coriolanus.
