Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/176

 reached tho city of king Meghamálin, named Vidiśá, tho pleasure-ground of the goddess of prosperity. There I was staying in the house of a professor of singing, named Dardura, and one day he happened to say to me, * To-morrow tho daughter of the king, named Hanśavalí, will exhibit in his presence her skill in dancing, which she has lately been taught.' When I heard that, I was tilled with curiosity, and managed to enter the king's palace with him the following day, and went into the dancing-hall. There I saw the slender- waisted princess Hanśavalí dancing before her father, to the music of a great tabor, looking like a creeper of tho tree of Love agitated by the wind of youth, shaking her ornaments like flowers, curving her hand like a shoot Then I thought, ' There is no one fitted to be the husband of this fawn-eyed one, except the prince Kamalákara; so, if she, being such, is not joined to him, why has the god of love taken the trouble of stringing his bow of flowers thus fruitlessly? So I will adopt some expedient in this matter.' Thus minded I went, after I had seen the spectacle, to the door of the king's court, and I put up a notice with this inscription on it; ' If there is any painter here, who is a match for me, let him paint a picture.' When no one else dared to tear it down, the king coming to hear of it, appointed me to paint his daughter's bower. Then I painted you and your servants, prince Kamalákara, on the wall of the bower of that Hanśavalí. " I thought to myself, ' If I declare the matter openly, she will know that I am scheming, so I will let the princess know it by means of an artifice.' So I persuaded a handsome fellow, who was an intimate friend of mine, to come near the palace, and pretend to be mad, and I arranged with him beforehand how he was to behave. Now he was seen a long way off by the princes, as he was roaming about singing and dancing, and they had him brought into their presence to make game of him. Then Hanśavalí saw him, and had him brought by way of a joke into her bower, and, when lie saw the picture of you, which I had painted there, he began to praise you, saying, ' I am fortunate in beholding this Kamalákara, who is, like Vishnu, an endless store of virtues, with his hand marked with the lotus and conch, the object of the favour of the goddess of Fortune.' When the princess heard him singing such songs, as he danced, she said to me, ' What does this fellow mean? Who is it that you have painted here?' When she asked me this persistently, I said, ' This mad fellow must have previously seen this prince, whom I have painted here out of regard for his beauty.' And then I told her your name, and described to her your good qualities. Then the young tree of passion grew up in the heart of Hanśavalí, which was irrigated by the overflowing streams of gushing love for you. Then the king her father came and saw what was going on, and in wrath had the pretended madman, who was dancing, and myself, both turned out of doors. After that she pined away