Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/234

 order that I may be able to move through the air, and so slay with ease that kinsman of mine, Satyadhara !" When the holy god Śiva heard this, he said to him, " This boon shall be granted to thee, but that enemy of thine has to-day died a natural death. And he shall be again born in the city of Rádhá, as Samarabhața, the favourite son of king Ugrabhața. But thou shalt be born as Bhímabhata, his elder brother, by a different mother, and thou shalt kill him and rule the kingdom. But because thou didst perform those ascetic penances under the influence of anger, thou shalt be hurled from thy rank by the curse of a hermit, and become a wild elephant, that remembers its birth and possesses articulate speech, and when thou shalt comfort a guest in distress and tell him thy history, then thou shalt be freed from thy elephant -nature and become a Gandharva, and at the same time a great benefit will be conferred upon that guest." When Śiva had said this, he disappeared, and Śiladhara, seeing that his body was emaciated by long penance, flung himself into the Ganges.

At this point of my tale it happened that, while that king named Ugrabhața, whom I have before mentioned, was living happily in the city of Rádhá with his wife Manoramá, who was equal to him in birth, there came to his court from a foreign country an actor named Lásaka. And he exhibited before the king that dramatic piece in which Vishnu, in the form of a woman, carries off the amŗita from the Daityas. And in that piece the king saw the actor's daughter Lásavatí dancing in the character of Amŗitiká. "When he saw her beauty, that was like that of the real Amŗita, with which Vishnu bewildered the Dánavas, he fell in love with her. And at the end of the dance he gave her father much wealth, and immediately introduced her into his harem. And then he married that dancer Lásavatí, and lived with her, having his eyes riveted upon her face. One day he said to his chaplain named Yajuhsvámin, " I have no son, so perform a sacrifice in order to procure me a son." The chaplain obeyed, and performed duly, with the help of learned Bráhmans, a sacrifice for that king's benefit. And, as he had been previously gained over by Manoramá, he gave her to eat, as being the eldest queen, the first half of the oblation purified with holy texts* And he gave the rest to the second queen Lásavatí. Then those two, Śiladhara and Satyadhara, whom I have before mentioned, were conceived in those two queens. And when the time came, Manoramá, the consort of that king, brought forth a son with auspicious marks. And at that moment a distinct utterance was heard from heaven, " This child who is born shall be a famous king under the name of Bhímabhața." On the next day Lásavatí also brought forth a son, and the king his father gave him the name of Samarabhața. And the usual sacraments were performed for them, and the two boys gradually grew up. But the