Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/500

 Then the day came to an end, and the sovereign performed his evening worship, and went to his bedroom, and got into bed, and reposed there. But in a dream at the end of the night* he saw his father being dragged away by a black female towards the southern quarter. The moment he had seen this, be woke up, and suspecting that some calamity might have befallen his lather, he thought upon the science named Prajnapti, who thereupon presented herself, and he addressed this question to her " Tell me, how has my father the king of Vatsa been going on ? For I am alarmed about him on account of a sight which I saw in an evil dream." When he said this to the science that had manifested herself in bodily form, she said to him, " Hear what has happened to your father the king of Vatsa.

" When he was in Kauśámbí, he suddenly heard from a messenger, who had come from Ujjayini, that king Chandamahásena was dead, and the same person told him that his wife the queen Angáravatí had burnt herself with his corpse. This so shocked him, that he fell senseless upon the ground : and when he recovered consciousness, he wept for a long time, with queen Vásavadattá and his courtiers, for his father-in-law and mother-in-law who had gone to heaven. But his ministers roused him by saying to him, ' In this transient world what is there that hath permanence? Moreover you ought not to weep for that king, who has you for a son-in-law, and Gopálaka for a son, and whose daughter's son is Naraváhanadatta.' When he had been thus admonished and roused from his prostration, he gave the offering of water to his father-in-law and mother-in-law.

" Then that king of Vatsa said, with throat half-choked with tears, to his afflicted brother-in-law Gopálaka, who remained at his side out of affection, † ' Rise up, go to Ujjayiní, and take care of your father's kingdom, for I have heard from a messenger that the people are expecting you?' When Gopálaka heard this, he said, weeping, to the king of Vatsa, ' I cannot bear to leave you and my sister, to go to Ujjayiní. Moreover, I cannot bring myself to endure the sight of my native city, now that my father is not in it. So let Pálaka, my younger brother, be king there with my full consent.' When Gopálaka had by these words shown his unwillingness to accept the kingdom, the king of Vatsa sent his commander-in-chief Rumanvat to the city of Ujjayiní, and had his younger brother-in-law named Pálaka, crowned king of it, with his elder brother's consent.

" And reflecting on the instability of all things, he became disgusted