Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/521

 dharas had also descended, Lakshmi, lotus in hand, said to that Tárávaloka, " Mount this elephant, and come to the country of the Vidyádharas, and there enjoy the imperial dignity* earned by your great generosity."

When Lakshmi said this, Tárávaloka, after bowing at the feet of bis father, mounted that celestial elephant, with her, and his wife, and his sons, in the sight of all the inhabitants of the hermitage, and surrounded by the kings of the Vidyádharas went through the air to their domain. There the distinctive sciences of the Vidyádharas repaired to him, and he long enjoyed supreme sway, but at last becoming disgusted with all worldly pleasures, he retired to a forest of ascetics. " Thus Tárávaloka, though a man, acquired in old time by his deeds of spotless virtue the sovereignty of all the Vidyádharas. But others, after acquiring it, lost it by their offences: so be on your guard against unrighteous conduct either on your own part or on that of another."†

When the hermit Kásyapa had told this story, and had thus admonished Naraváhanadatta, that emperor promised to follow his advice. And he had a royal proclamation made all round the mountain of Śiva, to the following effect, " Listen, Vidyádharas; whoever of my subjects after this commits an unrighteous act, will certainly be put to death by me." The Vidyádharas received his commands with implicit submission, and his glory was widely diffused on account of his causing Suratamanjarí to be set at liberty; and so he lived with his retinue in the hermitage of that excellent sage, on the Black Mountain, ‡ in the society of his maternal uncle, and in this manner spent the rainy season.