Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/211

 words of some splendid poem; and being a man of honour, I cannot have recourse to service or donations. So I will go into some out-of-the-way place and get into my power a Yakshiní,* for my spiritual teacher taught me a charm for accomplishing this." Having formed this resolution, the Bráhmin Pavitradhara went to the forest, and according to the prescribed method he won for himself a Yakshiní, named Saudáminí. And when he had won her, he lived united with her, like a banyan-tree, that has tided through a severe winter, united to the glory of spring. One day the Yakshiní, seeing her husband Pavitradhara in a state of despondency, because no son had been born to him, thus addressed him, " Do not be despondent, my husband, for a son shall be born to us. And now hear this story which I am about to tell you."

Story of Saudáminí.:— There is on the confines of the southern region a range of tamála forests, dark with clouds that obscure the sun, looking like the home of the monsoon. In it dwells a famous Yaksha of the name of Prithúdara, and I am his only daughter, Saudáminí by name. My loving father led me from one mighty mountain to another, and I was for ever amusing myself in heavenly gardens.

And one day, as I was sporting on mount Kailása with my friend Kapiśabhrú, I saw a young Yaksha named Attahása. He too, as he stood among his companions, beheld me ; and immediately our eyes were mutu- ally attracted by one another's beauty. When my father saw that, and ascertained that the match would be no mésalliance, he summoned Attahása, and arranged our marriage. And after he had fixed an auspicious day, he took me home, but Attahása returned to his home with his friends in high spirits. But the next day my friend Kapiśabhrú came to me with a downcast air, and when I questioned her, she was at length induced to say this; " Friend, 1 must tell you this bad news, though it is a thing which should not be told. As I was coming today, I saw your betrothed Attahása in a garden named Chitrasthala, on a plateau of the Himálayas, full of longing for you. And his friends, in order to amuse him, made him in sport king of the Yakshas, and they made his brother Díptaśikha personate Nadakúvara his son, and they themselves became his ministers. While your beloved was being solaced in this way by his friends, Nadakúvara, who was roaming at will through the air, saw him. And the son of the king of wealth, being enraged at what he saw, summoned him, and cursed him in the following words; ' Since, though a servant, you desire to pose as a lord, become a mortal, you villain ! As you wish to mount, fall ' When he laid this curse on Attahása, he answered despondingly, ' Prince, I foolishly did this to dispel my longing, not through