Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/449

 body, as a specimen of his skill in making all that is fair. She is always singing to the lyre the hymn of Vishnu, which the god himself bestowed on her, and so she has attained supreme skill in music. And the princess has firmly resolved that whoever is so well skilled in music, that he can play on the lyre, and sing perfectly in three scales a song in praise of Vishnu, shall be her husband. The consequence is, that all here are trying to learn to play the lyre, but they have not acquired the amount of skill demanded by the princess."

Prince Naraváhanadatta was delighted at hearing this speech from the mouth of Vínádatta and he said to him, *' All the accomplishments have chosen me for a husband, and I know all the music, that there is in the three worlds." When he said this, his friend Vínádatta conducted him into the presence of king Ságaradatta, and said there, " Here is Naraváhanadatta, the son of the king of Vatsa, who has fallen into your city from the band of a Vidyádharí. He is an adept in music, and he knows the song in praise of Vishnu, in which the princess Gandharvadattá takes so much pleasure." When the king heard this, he said, " It is true; I heard so much before from the Gandharvas; so I must to-day receive him with respect here. And he is an emanation of a divinity; he is not out of place in the abode of gods; otherwise, if he were a man, how could he have come here by associating with a Vidyádhari ? So summon Gandharvadatta quickly and let us test him." When the king said this, the chamberlains went to fetch her. And the fair one came there, all glorious with flower-ornaments, agitating with her beauty, as if with a wind, the creepers of spring. She sat down at her father's side, and the servants told her what had taken place, and immediately, at his command, she sang a song to the lyre. When she was joining the notes to the quarter-tones, like Sarasvati the wife of Brahma, Naravahanadatta was astonished at her singing and her beauty. Then he said to her, " Princess, your lyre does not seem to me to sound well, I think there must be a hair on the string." Thereupon tlie lyre was examined, and they found the hair where he said, and that astonished even the Gandharvas. Then the king took the lyre from his daughter's hand, and gave it to him, saying, " Prince, take this, and pour nectar into our