Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/359

 man, dogs his stops whithersoever he runneth. For this fool, when on the ship, was discovered by his deliverer secretly associating with his wife, and thereupon was cast by him into the sea and perished.

In the meanwhile the king Ratnádhipatí caused the queen Rájadattá with her retinue to mount Śvetaraśmi, without allowing himself to be an^ry, and he carried her to Ratnakúta, and delivered her to Śilavatí, and related that occurrence to her and his ministers. And he exclaimed, " Alas ! How much pain have I endured, whose mind has been devoted to these unsubstantial insipid enjoyments. Therefore I will go to the forest, and take Hari as my refuge, in order that I may never again be a vessel of such woes." Thus he spake, and though his sorrowing ministers and Śilavatí endeavoured to prevent him, he, being disgusted with the world, would not abandon his intention. Then, being indifferent to enjoyments, he first gave half of his treasure to the virtuous Śilavatí, and the other half to the Bráhmans, and then that king made over in the prescribed form his kingdom to a Bráhman of great excellence, named Pápabhanjana. And after he had given away his kingdom, he ordered Śvetaraśmi to be brought, with the object of retiring to a grove of asceticism, his subjects looking on with tearful eyes. No sooner was the elephant brought, than it left the body, and became a man of god-like appearance, adorned with necklace and bracelet. When the king asked him who he was, and what was the meaning of all this, he answered. " We were two Gandharva brothers, living on the Malaya mountain: I was called Somaprabha, and the eldest was Devaprabha. And my brother had but one wife, but she was very dear to him. Her name was Rájavatí. One day he was wandering about with her in his arms, and happened to arrive, with me in his company, at a place called the dwelling of the Siddhas. There we both worshipped Vishnu in his temple, and began all of us to sing before the adorable one. In the meanwhile a Siddha came there, and stood regarding with fixed gaze Rájavati, who was singing songs well worth hearing. And my brother, who was jealous, said in his wrath to that Siddha; ' Why dost thou, although a Siddha, cast a longing look at another's wife?' Then the Siddha was moved with anger, and said to him by way of a curse— ' Fool, I was looking at her out of interest in her song, not out of desire. So fall thou, jealous one, into a mortal womb together with her; and then behold with thy own eyes thy wife in the embraces of another.' When he had said this, I, being enraged at the curse, struck him, out of childish recklessness, with a white toy elephant of clay, that I had in my hand. Then he cursed me in the following words— " Be born again on the earth as an elephant, like that with which you have just struck me." Then being merciful, that Siddha allowed himself to be propitiated by that brother of mine Devaprabha, and appointed for us both