Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/167

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

143

143 fruit of the tree of hi? own valour in visible form: she for her part rose up when she saw him, and offering him the argha*[1] so to speak, by sprinkling him with her tears of joy, she fastened her twining arms round his neck like a garland. When they embraced one another, the long accumulated affection †[2] seemed to ooze from their limbs in the form of sweat, owing to excessive pressure. Then they sat down, and never satisfied with gazing at one another, they both, as it were, endured the agony of longing multiplied a hundred-fold. Bhadrá then said to Vidúshaka; " How did you come to this land ?" And he thereupon gave her this answer; " Supported by affection for thee, I came here enduring many risks to my life, what else can I say, fair one ? When she heard that, seeing that his love was excessive, as it caused him to disregard his own life, Bhadrá said to him who through affection had endured the utmost, " My busband, I care not for my friends, nor my magic powers; you are my life, and I am your slave, my lord, bought by you with your virtues." Then Vidúshaka said, " Then come with me to live in Ujjayini, my beloved, leaving all this heavenly joy." Bhadrá immediately accepted his proposal, and gave up all her magic gifts, (which departed from her the moment she formed that resolution,) with no more regret than if they had been straw. Then Vidúshaka rested with her there during that night, being waited on by her friend Yogeśvarí, and in the morning the successful hero descended with her from the mountain of the sun-rise, and again called to mind the Rákshasa Yamadanshtra; the Rákshasa came the moment he was thought of, and Vidúshaka told him the direction of the journey he had to take, and then ascended his shoulder, having previously placed Bhadrá there. She too endured patiently to be placed on the shoulder of a very loathsome Rákshasa; what will not women do when mastered by affection? So Vidúshaka, mounted on the Rákshasa, set out with his beloved, and again reached the city of Kárkotaka; and there men beheld him with fear inspired by the sight of the Rákshasa; and when he saw king Áryavarman, he demanded from him his daughter; and after receiving that princess surrendered by her father, whom he had won with his arm, he set forth from that city in the same style, mounted on the Rákshasa. And after he had gone some distance, he found that wicked merchant on the shore of the sea. who long ago cut the ropes when he had been thrown into the sea. And he took, together with his wealth, his daughter, whom he had before won as a reward for setting free the ship in the sea. And he considered the depriving that villain of his wealth as equivalent to putting him to death, for grovelling souls often value their hoards more than their life. Then mounted on the

  1. * An oblation to gods or venerable men of rice, dúrva grass, flowers. &c., with water, or of water only in a small boat-shaped vessel.
  2. Sneha means oil, and also affection.