Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/632

 And the next day, queen, your father the king of Kalinga bestowed you on king Vishamaśila with appropriate ceremonies, and a splendid marriage-gift. Thus, queen, you were lawfully married by the king out of his deep love for you, and at the risk of his own life, and not out of any desire to triumph over an enemy.

" When I heard this story, my friends, from the mouth of the Kárpațika Devasena, I dismissed my anger, which was caused by the contempt with which I supposed myself to have been treated. So, you see, this king was induced to marry me by seeing a likeness of me carved on a pillar, and to marry Malayavatí by seeing a painted portrait of her." In these words Kalingasena, the beloved wife of king Vikramáditya, described her husband's might, and delighted his other wives. Then Vikramáditya, accompanied by all of them, and by Malayavatí, remained delighting in his empire.

Then, one day, a Rájpút named Krishnaśakti, who had been oppressed by the members of his clan, came there from the Dakkan. He went to the palace-gate surrounded by five hundred Rájpúts, and took on himself the vow of kárpațika to the king. And though the king tried to dissuade him, he made this declaration, " I will serve king Vikramáditya for twelve years." And he remained at the gate of the palace, with his followers, determined to carry out this vow, and while he was thus engaged, eleven years passed over his head.

And when the twelfth year came, his wife, who was in another land, grieved at her long separation from him, sent him a letter; and he happened to be reading this Áryá verse which she had written in the letter, at night, by the light of a candle, when the king, who had gone out in search of adventures, was listening concealed, " Hot, long, and tremulous, do these sighs issue forth from me, during thy absence, my lord, but not the breath of life, hard-hearted woman that I am ! " When the king had heard this read over and over again by the kárpațika, he went to his palace and said to himself, " This kárpațika, whose wife is in such despondency, has long endured affliction, and if his objects are not gained, he will, when this twelfth year is at an end, yield his breath. So I must not let him wait any longer." After going through these reflections, the king at once sent a female slave, and summoned that kárpațika. And after he had caused a grant to be written, he gave him this order, " My good fellow, go towards the northern quarter through Omkárapițha; there live on the proceeds of a village of the name of Khandayațaka, which I give you by this grant; you will find it by asking your way as you go along."

When the king had said this, he gave the grant into his hands; and the kárpațika went off by night without telling his followers. He was