58
though he seized her by the hair, sank deep in the water; and he dived as deep in order to follow her. And after he had dived a long way, he suddenly saw a splendid temple of Śiva, but no water and no woman.*[1] After beholding that wonderful sight, being wearied out he paid his adorations to the god with the bull-blazoned banner, and spent that night in a beautiful garden attached to the temple. And in the morning that lady was seen by him having come to worship the god Śiva, like the incarnate splendour of beauty attended by all womanly perfections. And after she had worshipped the god, the moon-faced one departed to her own house, and Śrídatta for his part followed her. And he saw that palace of hers resembling the city of the gods, which the haughty beauty entered hurriedly in a contemptuous manner. And without deigning to address him, the graceful lady sat down on a sofa in the inner part of the house, waited upon by thousands of women. And Śrídatta also took a seat near her; then suddenly that virtuous lady began to weep. The tear-drops fell in an unceasing shower on her bosom, and that moment pity entered into the heart of Śrídatta. And then he said to her, "Who art thou, and what is thy sorrow? Tell me, fair one, for I am able to remove it." Then she said reluctantly, " We are the thousand granddaughters of Bali †[2] the king of the Daityas, and I am the eldest of all, and my name is Vidyutprabhá. That grandfather of ours was carried off by Vishnu to long imprisonment, and the same hero slew our father in a wrestling-match. And after he had slain him, he excluded us from our own city, and he placed a lion in it to prevent us from entering. The lion occupies that place, and grief our hearts. It is a Yaksha that was made a lion by the curse of Kuvera, and long ago it was predicted that the Yaksha's curse should end when he was conquered by some mortal; so Vishnu deigned to inform us on our humbly asking him how we might be enabled to enter our city. Therefore subdue that lion our enemy; it was for that reason, O hero, that I enticed you hither. And when you have overcome him you will obtain from him a sword named Mrigánka, by the virtue of which you shall conquer the world and become a king." When he heard that, Śrídatta agreed to undertake the adventure, and after that day had passed, on the morrow he took those Daitya maidens with him as guides, and went to that city, and there he overcame in wrestling that haughty lion. He being freed from his curse
- ↑ * Cp. the story of Sattvaśíla, which is the seventh tale in the Vetála Panchavinśati, and will be found in Chapter 81 of this work. Cp. also the story of Śaktideva in Book V. ch. 26, and Ralston's remarks on it in his Russian Folk-Tales, p. 99.
- ↑ † Vishnu assumed the form of a dwarf and appeared before Bali, and asked for as much land as he could step over. On Bali's granting it, Vishnu dilating himself, in two steps deprived him of heaven and earth, but left the lower regions still in his dominion.
