Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/276

 to him, " King, you have embarked on a toilsome undertaking, and I liked you from the moment I first saw you, so listen, I will tell you a tale to divert your mind."

Story of Somaprabhá and her three suitors.:— In Ujjayiní there lived an excellent Bráhman, the dear dependent and minister of king Punyasena, and his name was Harisvámin. That householder had by his wife, who was his equal in birth, an excellent son like himself, Devasvámin by name. And he also had born to him a daughter, famed for her matchless beauty, rightly named Somaprabhá * When the time came for that girl to be given away in marriage, as she was proud of her exceeding beauty, she made her mother give the following message to her father and brother, " I am to be given in marriage to a man possessed of heroism or knowledge, or magic power; † you must not give me in marriage to any other, if you value my life.

When her father Harisvámin heard this, he was full of anxiety, trying to find for her a husband coming under one of these three categories. And 'while so engaged, he was sent as ambassador by king Punyasena to negotiate a treaty with a king of the Dekkan, who had come to invade him. And when he had accomplished the object, for which he was sent, a noble Bráhman, who had heard of the great beauty of his daughter, came and asked him for her hand. Harisvámin said to the Bráhman suitor, " My daughter will not have any husband who does not possess either valour, knowledge, or magic power; so tell me which of the three you possess." When Harisvámin said this to the Bráhman suitor, he answered, " I possess magic power." Thereupon Harisvámin rejoined, " Then shew me your magic power." So that possessor of supernatural power immediately prepared by his skill a chariot that would fly through the air. And in a moment he took Harisvámin up in that magic chariot, and shewed him heaven and all the worlds. And he brought him back delighted to that very camp of the king of the Dekkan, to which he had been sent on business. Then Harisvámin promised his daughter to that man possessed of magic power, and fixed the marriage for the seventh day from that time.

And in the meanwhile another Bráhman, in Ujjayini, came and asked Harisvámin's son Devasvámin for the hand of his sister. Devasvámin answered, " She does not wish to have a husband who is not possessed of either knowledge, or magic power, or heroism." Thereupon he declared himself to be a hero. And when the hero displayed his skill in the use of missiles and hand-to-hand weapons, Devasvámin promised to give him his sister, who