Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/523



Glory to Śiva, who assumes various forms ; who, though his beloved takes up half bis body,* is an ascetic, free from qualities, the due object of a world's adoration ! We worship Ganeśa, who, when fanning away the cloud of bees, that flies up from his trunk, with his flapping ears, seems to be dispersing the host of obstacles.

Thus Naraváhanadatta, who had been established in the position of lord paramount over all the kings of the Vidyádharas, remained on that Black Mountain in order to get through the rainy season, spending the time in the hermitage of that sage Kaśyapa, and in the society of his maternal uncle Gopálaka, who was living the life of an ascetic. He was accompanied by his ministers, and surrounded by twenty-five of his wives, and attended by various Vidyádhara princes, and he occupied himself in telling tales. One day, the hermits and his wives said to him, " Tell us now ! When Mánasavega took away queen Madanamanchuká by his magic power, who amused you impatient of separation, and how did he do it?"

When Naraváhanadatta had been asked this question by those hermits and by his wives, he proceeded to speak as follows; " Can I tell now how great grief I endured, when I found out that that wicked enemy had carried off my queen? There was no building, and no garden, or room, into which I did not roam seeking for her in my grief, and all my ministers with me. Then I sat down, as if beside myself, in a garden at the foot of a tree, and Gomukha, having obtained his opportunity, said to me, in order to console me, ' Do not be despondent, my sovereign; you will soon recover the queen; for the gods promised that you should rule the vidyádharas with her as your consort; that must turn out as the gods predicted, for