Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/383

 fierce suns rising at once; thou that wast a premature day of doom to the race of the Daityas, whom Śiva, Vishnu, and Indra found hard to conquer ! Hail, thou that wardest off calamity from thy votaries ! Hail, thou that diffusest a blaze of flame with thy hand, while it glitters with thy mighty axe, that seems anxious to illuminate thee in sport ! I fly for refuge to thee, Ganeśa, that wast worshipped even by Gaurí, in order that her husband might successfully accomplish his undertaking in the conquest of Tripura; honour to thee !" When Mrigánkadatta had in these words praised Ganeśa, he spent that night fasting, on a bed of kuśa-grass under that tree. In the same way that prince spent eleven nights, being engaged in propitiating Ganeśa, the king of impediments; and Śrutadhi remained in attendance on him.

And on the night of the twelfth day Ganeśa said to him in a dream, " My son, I am pleased with thee; thy ministers shall be released from their curse, and thou shalt recover them; and with them thou shalt go and win Śaśánkavatí in due course; and thou shalt return to thy own city, and rule the whole earth." After Mrigánkadatta had been thus in- formed in a dream by the god Ganeśa, he woke up, when the night came to an end, and told Śrutadhi the vision that he had seen. Śrutadhi congratulated him on it; and then, in the morning, the prince bathed and worshipped Ganeśa, and proceeded to walk round the tree in which the god dwelt, with his right hand towards it,* and while he was thus engaged, all his ten ministers came down from the tree, having been released from the form of fruits, and fell at his feet. Besides the six who were mentioned before, there were Vyághrasena and Sthúlabahu, and Meghabala, and the fourth Dŗidhamushți. Then the prince, having recovered all those ministers at the same in- stant, with eye, with gestures,† and with voice agitated by the workings of joy, looked at his ministers, one by one, again and again, exceedingly lovingly, and embraced them, and then spoke to them; having successfully attained his object. And they, beholding with tears in their eyes their master, who, after the asceticism which he had gone through, was slender as a new moon, and having been told the true explanation of the whole by Śrutadhi, felicitated themselves on having truly a protecting lord. Then Mrigánkadatta, having attained good hope of accomplishing his enterprise, joyfully broke his fast with those ministers, who had performed all necessary ablutions in the tank.