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begun to devour by mistake the king of the Vidyádharas, was much grieved. He began to reflect, "Alas ! in my cruelty I have incurred sin. In truth those who follow evil courses easily contract guilt. But this great-hearted one who has given his life for another, and despising*[1] the world, which is altogether under the dominion of illusion, come to face me, deserves praise." Thinking thus, he was about to enter the fire to purify himself from guilt, when Jímútaváhana said to him: " King of birds, why do you despond? If you are really afraid of guilt, then you must determine never again to eat these snakes: and you must repent of eating all those previously devoured, for this is the only remedy available in this case, it was idle for you ever to think of any other." Thus Jímútaváhana, full of compassion for creatures, said to Garuda, and he was pleased and accepted the advice of that king, as if he had been his spiritual preceptor, determining to do what he recommended; and he went to bring nectar from heaven to restore to life rapidly that wounded prince, and the other snakes, whose bones only remained. Then the goddess Gaurí, pleased with Jímútaváhana's wife's devotion to her, came in person and rained nectar on him: by that his limbs were reproduced with increased beauty, and the sound of the drums of the rejoicing gods was heard at the same time. Then, on his rising up safe and sound, Garuda brought the nectar of immortality †[2] from heaven, and sprinkled it along the whole shore of the sea. That made all the snakes there rise up alive, and then that forest along the shore of the sea, crowded with the numerous tribe of snakes, appeared like Pátála ‡[3] come to behold Jímútaváhana, having lost its previous dread of Garuda. Then Jímútaváhana's relations congratulated him, having seen that he was glorious with unwounded body and undying fame. And his wife rejoiced with her relations, and his parents also. Who would not joy at pain ending in happiness? And with his permission Śankachúda departed to Rasátala.§[4] and without it his glory, of its own accord, spread through the three worlds. Then, by virtue of the favour of the daughter of the Himalaya all his relations, Matanga and others, who were long hostile to him, came to Garuda, before whom the troops of gods were inclining out of love, an I timidly approaching the glory of the Vidyádhara race, prostrated themselve.
- ↑ * I read adhah for adah.
- ↑ † In the Sicilian stories of the Signora von Gonzonhach an ointment does duty for the amrita, cp. for one instance out of many, page 145 of that work. Ralston remarks that in European stories the raven is connected with the Water of Life. See his exhaustive account of this cycle of stories on pages 231 and 232 of his Russian Folktales. See also Veckenstedt's Wendische Sagen p.245, and the story which begins on page 227.
- ↑ ‡ The home of the serpent race below the earth.
- ↑ § Here equivalent to Pátála.
