Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/306

 Yaugandharáyana pretending to be distracted, said to the king— " Let your majesty command what is to be done iu this matter !" The king, being impatient and longing for a favourable moment, said, after reflecting— " You must ask Kalingasená, and see what she says." When Yaugandharáyana heard this, he took with him two astrologers and went into the presence of Kalingasená. She received him politely, and beholding her beauty, he reflected— " If the king were to obtain her, he would abandon the whole kingdom in his reckless passion." And he said to her, " I am come with these astrologers to fix the moment of your marriage; so let these servants inform me of the particular star in the lunar mansions under which you were born." When the astrologers heard the lunar mansion stated by her attendants, they pretended to investigate the matter, and kept saying in the course of their calculations, " It is not on this side, it must be after that." At last, in accordance with their agreement with the minister, they named again that very moment at the end of six months. When Kalingasená heard that distant date fixed, she was cast down in spirit, but her chamberlain said, " You must first fix a favourable moment, so that this couple may be happy all their lives, what matters it whether it be near or far off?" When they heard this speech of the chamberlain's, all there immediately exclaimed— " Well said." And Yaugandharáyana said, " Yes, and if an inauspicious moment is appointed for us, the king Kalingadatta, our proposed connexion, will be grieved." Then Kalingasená, being helpless, said to them all— " Let it be as you appoint in your wisdom"— and remained silent. And at once accepting that speech of hers, Yaugandharáyana took leave of her, and went with the astrologers into the presence of the king. Then he told the proceedings to the king of Vatsa, exactly as they had happened, and so having settled his mind by an artifice, he went to his own house.

So having attained his object of putting off the marriage, in order to complete the scheme he had in view, he called to mind his friend, the Bráhman-Rákshasa, named Yogeśvara. He, according to his previous promise, when thought of, readily came to the minister, and bowed before him and said— " Why am I called to mind?" Then Yaugandharáyana told him the whole incident of Kalingasená which was tempting his master to vice. and again said to him— " I have managed to gain time, my friend; in that interval, do you, remaining concealed, observe by your skill the behaviour of Kalingasená. For the Vidyádharas and other spirits are without doubt secretly in love with her, since there is no other woman in the three worlds equal to her in beauty. So, if she were to have an intrigue with some Siddha or Vidyádhara, and you were to see it, it would be a fortunate thing. And you must observe the divine lover, though lie come disguised, when he is asleep, for divine beings, when asleep, assume their own form. If in this