Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/448

 contest she had deposited in the care of one of her sciences,* and placed him in a dry well in the city of the Gandharvas, to keep him. And when he was there, she said to him, " Remain here a little while, my husband; good fortune will befall you here; and do not despond in your heart, O man appointed to a happy lot, for the sovereignty over all the Vidyádharas is to be yours. But I must leave this for the present, to appease my sciences, impaired by my resistance to my elder brother; however, I will return to you soon." When the Vidhyádhari Vegavatí had said this, she departed somewhere or other.

Then a certain Gandharva, of the name of Vinádatta, saw Naraváhanadatta in that well. Truly if there were not great souls in this world, born for the benefit of others, relieving distress as wayside trees heat, the world would be a withered forest. Thus the good Gandharva, as soon as he saw Naraváhanadatta, asked him his name and lineage, and supporting him with his hand, drew him out of that well, and said to him. † " If you are a man and not a god, how did you reach this city of the Gandharvas inaccessible to man? Tell me !" Then Naraváhanadatta answered him, " A Vidyádhari brought me here, and threw me into the well by her power." Then the good Gandharva Vínádatta, seeing that he had the veritable signs of an emperor, took him to his own dwelling, and waited upon him with all the luxuries at his command. " And the next day, Naraváhanadatta, perceiving that the inhabitants of the city carried lyres in their hands, said to his host, " Why have all these people, even down to the children, got lyres in their hands?" ‡ Then Vínádatta gave him this answer, " Ságaradatta the king of the Gandharvas, who lives here, has a daughter named Gandharvadattá, who eclipses the nymphs of heaven; it seems as if the Creator had blended nectar, the moon, and sandalwood, and other choice things, in order to compose her