Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/241

 she heard that, she said to him, " Whence can I procure another golden lotus? But there is a lake here belonging to our king Kapálasphota, where golden lotuses of this kind grow on all sides. From that lake he gave that one lotus to my husband as a token of affection." When she said this, he answered her, " Then take me to that hike, in order that I may myself take a golden lotus from it." She then attempted to dissuade him saying, " It is impossible; for the lake is guarded by terrible Rákshasas;" but nevertheless he would not desist from his importunity." Then at last his mother-in-law was with much difficulty induced to take him there, and he beheld from afar that heavenly lake on the plateau of a lofty mountain, covered with dense and tall-stalked lotuses of gleaming gold, as if from continually facing the sun's rays they had drunk them in, and so become interpenetrated with them.

So he went there and began to gather the lotuses, and while he was thus engaged, the terrible Rákshasas, who guarded it, endeavoured to prevent him from doing so. And being armed he killed some of them, but the others fled and told their king Kapálasphota,* and when that king of the Rákshasas heard of it, he was enraged and came there himself, and saw Aśokadatta with the lotuses he had carried off. And in his astonishment he exclaimed as he recognised his brother: " What ! is this my brother Aśokadatta come here?" Then he flung away his weapon, and with his eyes washed with tears of joy, he quickly ran and fell at his feet, and said to him: " I am Vijayadatta, your younger brother, we are both the sons of that excellent Bráhman Govindasvámin. And by the appointment of destiny, I became a Rákshasa such as you see, and have continued such for this long time, and I am called Kapálasphota from my cleaving the skull on the funeral pyre."

But now from seeing you I have remembered my former Bráhman nature, and that Rákshasa nature of mine, that clouded my mind with delusion, has left me." When Vijayadatta said this, Aśokadatta embraced him, and so to speak, washed with copious tears of joy his body defiled by the Rákshasa nature. And while he was thus engaged, there descended from heaven by divine command the spiritual guide of the Vidyádharas, named Kauśika. And he approaching these two brothers, said, " You and your family are all Vidyádharas, who have been reduced to this state by a curse, and now the curse of all of you has terminated. So receive these sciences, which belong to you, and which you must share with your relations. And return to your own proper dwelling taking with you your relations." Having said this, the spiritual guide, after bestowing the sciences on them, ascended to heaven. And they, having become Vidyádharas, awoke from their long dream,