Page:Tales from the Indian Epics.djvu/96

90 India that none came forward to ask for her hand. King Asvapati grieved that no suitor wooed his beautiful maid. At last he sent for Savitri. "My daughter," he said, "you are a grown woman and it is time for you to marry. But no suitor comes to win you. Go therefore through the land of the Aryas and seek some youth fit to be your husband." Savitri, blushing deeply, took leave of the king. In a short time the king's charioteer drove up a golden chariot to the door of her palace, and seated in it and accompanied by wise ministers and horse soldiers with glittering lances, she journeyed in turn to the various shrines and holy places of India.

She was absent for several months. In her absence the sage Narada visited the court of Asvapati, king of the Madvas. The king greeted the great sage with befitting reverence, and king and anchorite were talking together when a royal messenger announced that the Princess Savitri had returned and was driving through the outer gates of the royal palace. The sage Narada asked the king where she had been and why he did not wed her to some Aryan hero, "For that very purpose," answered the king, "I sent her away. She will now announce to me whom she has chosen for her husband." Just then the princess entered the royal hall and the king bade her tell him on what hero her love had fallen. The princess blushed and said with a smile that made her lovelier than before, "O King Asvapati, my father, there ruled some years ago in the land of the Salyas a noble king named Dyumatsena. But while still in the prime of life and while his son was but a tiny child the king's eyes failed him and he became blind. Hearing of this a neighbouring king, over whom King Dyumatsena had in earlier years