Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/382

 Then the ninety-nine wives of the king became pregnant, and all in time brought forth sons. But the head queen Gunavará conceived last of all, and afterwards gave birth to a son with more auspicious marks than the sons of all the others. And as he was sprung from the juice of the fleshy part of the horns, his father, the king, gave him the name of Śringabhuja, and rejoiced greatly at his birth. He grew up with those other brothers, and though in age he was the youngest of all, he was superior to all in good qualities. And in course of time that prince became like the god of Love in beauty, and like Arjuna in his skill in archery, and like Bhíma in strength. Accordingly the other queens, seeing that queen Gunavará, now that she had this son, was more than ever dear to king Virabhuja, became jealous of her.

Then an evil-minded queen among them, named Ayaśolekhá, deliberated with all the others and entered into a conspiracy; and when the king came home one day, she exhibited an assumed sadness in her face. The king asked her the reason, and she said with apparent reluctance— " My husband, why do you endure patiently the disgrace of your house? you avert disgrace from others, why do you not avert it from yourself? You know the young superintendent of the women's apartments named Surakshita; your queen Gunavará is secretly devoted to him. Since no man but he can penetrate into the women's apartments, which are strictly watched by guards, she associates with him. And this is a well-known subject of gossip in the whole harem." When she said this to the king, he pondered and reflected; and went and asked the other queens one after another in private, and they were faithful to their treacherous plot, and told him the same story. Then that wise king conquered his anger, and reflected— " This accusation against these two is improbable, and yet such is the gossip. So I must not without reflecting reveal the matter to any one; but they must by an artifice be separated now, to enable me to see the termination of the whole matter." Having determined on this, next day he summoned Surakshita, the superintendent of the womens' apartments, into his judgment-hall, and with assumed anger, said to him— " I have learned, villain, that you have slain a Bráhman, so I cannot endure to see your face until you have made a pilgrimage to holy places." When he heard that, he was amazed and began to murmur— " How can I have slain a Bráhman, my sovereign?" But the king went on to say; " Do not attempt to brazen it out, but go to Káśmír to wash away your sin, (whore are those holy fields, Vijayakhetra, and Nandikshetra the purifying, and the kshetra* of the Boar,) the land which was hallowed by Vishnu the bow-handed god, where the stream of the Ganges bears the name of Vitastá, where is the