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story of Śiva and Mádhava, which I will tell you." Having said this, the princess told the following tale:
Story of Śiva and Mádhava.:— There is an excellent city rightly named Ratnapura,*[1] and in it there were two rogues named Śiva and Mádhava. Surrounding themselves with many other rogues, they contrived for a long time to rob, by making use of trickery, all the rich men in the town. And one day those two deliberated together and said— " We have managed by this time to plunder this town thoroughly; so let us now go and live in the city of Ujjayiní; there we hear that there is a very rich man named Śankarasvámin, who is chaplain to the king. If we cheat him out of his money we may thereby enjoy the charms of the ladies of Málava. He is spoken of by Bráhmans as a miser, because he withholds †[2] half their usual fee with a frowning face, though he possesses treasure enough to fill seven vessels; and that Bráhman has a pearl of a daughter spoken of as matchless, we will manage to get her too out of him along with the money." Having thus determined, and having arranged beforehand what part each was to play, the two rogues Siva and Mádhava went out of that town. At last they reached Ujjayiní, and Mádhava, with his attendants, disguised as a Rájpút, remained in a certain village outside the town. But Śiva, who was expert in every kind of deception, having assumed perfectly the disguise of a religious ascetic, first entered that town alone. There he took up his quarters in a hut on the banks of the Siprá, in which he placed, so that they could be seen, clay, darbha grass, a vessel for begging, and a deer-skin. And in the morning he anointed his body with thick clay, as if testing beforehand his destined smearing with the mud of the hell Avíchi. And plunging in the water of the river, he remained a long time with his head downward, as if rehearsing beforehand his future descent to hell, the result of his evil actions. And when he rose up from his bath, he remained a long time looking up towards the sun, as if shewing that he deserved to be impaled. Then he went into the presence of the god and making rings of Kusá grass,‡[3] and muttering prayers, he remained sitting in the posture called Padmásana, §[4] with a hypocritical cunning face, and from time to time he made an offering to Vishnu, having gathered white flowers, even as he took captive the
- ↑ * I.e. the city of jewels.
- ↑ † Áskandin is translated "granting" by Monier Williams and the Petersburg lexico-graphers.
- ↑ ‡ These are worn on the fingers when offerings are made.
- ↑ § A particular posture in religious meditation, sitting with the thighs crossed, with one hand resting on the left thigh, the other held up with the thumb upon the heart, and the eyes directed to the tip of the nose.
