Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/139

 ed, said, "I must enter the fire to clear from suspicion the mind of the king." Then the wise Yaugandharáyana, best of right-acting men, rinsed his mouth, with his face towards the east, and spoke a blameless speech; " If I have been a benefactor to this king, and if the queen is free from stain, speak, ye guardians of the world; if it is not so, I will part from my body." Thus he spoke and ceased, and this heavenly utterance was heard: "Happy art thou, O king, that hast for minister Yaugandharáyana, and for wife Vásavadattá, who in a former birth was a goddess; not the slightest blame attaches to her." Having uttered this, the Voice ceased. All who were present, when they heard that sound, which resounded though all the regions, delightful as the deep thunder-roar at the first coming of the rain-clouds, having endured affliction for a long time, lifted up their hands and plainly imitated peafowl in their joy. Moreover the king of Vatsa and Gopálaka praised that proceeding of Yaugandharáyana's, and the former already considered that the whole earth was subject to him. Then that king possessing those two wives, whose affection was every day increased by living with him, like joy and tranquillity come to visit him in bodily form, was in a state of supreme felicity.

The next day, the king of Vatsa, sitting in private with Vásavadattá and Padmávatí, engaged in a festive banquet, sent for Yaugandharáyana, Gopálaka, Rumanvat and Vasantaka, and had much confidential conversation with them. Then the king, in the hearing of them all, told the following tale with reference to the subject of his separation from his beloved.

Story of Urvaśí:— Once on a time there was a king of the name or Purúravas, who was a devoted worshipper of Vishnu; he traversed heaven as well as earth without opposition, and one day, as he was sauntering in Nandana, the garden of the gods, a certain Apsaras of the name of Urvaśí, who was a second stupifying weapon* in the hands of Love, cast an eye upon him. The moment she beheld him, the sight so completely robbed her of her senses, that she alarmed the timid minds of Rumbhá and her other friends. The king too, when he saw that torrent of the nectar of beauty, was quite faint with thirst, because he could not obtain possession of her. Then